Promoting Whole Health in the Dental Setting: Steps Toward an Integrated Interprofessional Clinical Learning Environment Involving Pharmacy, Social Work, and Nursing

INTRODUCTION: Dental settings have not traditionally functioned as access points to the health care system, however they can serve patients who may not otherwise seek routine health care. Millions of Americans annually visit either a dental or primary care provider, but not always both as recommended, even though multiple health co-morbidities can manifest in and impact oral health. Offering multidisciplinary health services in a dental setting has potential to reach unserved populations. DESCRIPTION: Innovative partnerships between schools of dentistry, pharmacy, social work, and nursing were designed to promote integrated service delivery in the emerging workforce and the purposeful inclusion of oral health in integrated care settings. DISCUSSION: Oral complications of systemic disease and systemic complications of oral disease impose significant burdens on populations and the public health infrastructure in terms of economic cost, disability, and mortality. Exacerbated by the lack of integrated services, intersecting social, economic, and health issues perpetuate disparities and negative health outcomes. Care is often focused on reactive rather than preventive measures therefore addressing only the acute issue instead of the underlying, causative problem(s). CONCLUSION: We describe steps for integrated, whole-health services and lessons learned for other academic health institutions and interprofessional settings considering integrated clinical models.