A portrait illuminates a metaphor for maldistribution of burden of disease, risk exposure, and long-standing inequity in health laid bare to the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some patients who need general medical care before a dental intervention can suffer increased risk for poor outcomes if they have compromised access to care.
Alexa Curt and Margaret Samuels-Kalow, MD, MPhil, MSHP
Division between medical and dental care exacerbates health inequity and forces many with compromised access to seek oral health care in emergency departments.
Eleanor Fleming, PhD, DDS, MPH, Julie Frantsve-Hawley, PhD, and Myechia Minter-Jordan, MD, MBA
Continued separation of dental and oral health from general medical care generates unnecessary prescriptions and pain management that are neither restorative nor responsive to patients’ primary complaints.
Training, service delivery, and financing are done separately in dentistry and general health care, which has influenced reimbursement structures, access to services, and outcomes.