It is widely known that problems with our health care system include skyrocketing costs and insufficient access to oral health, are resulting in subpar, uneven health outcomes. According to the authors of “The Virtual Dental Home: Implications for Policy and Strategy”: “If oral health systems are to meet the ‘Triple Aim’ of improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care, new and innovative strategies will be needed including new regulatory, delivery, and financing systems. The virtual dental home is one such system.”
Enter the Colorado SMILES Dental Project – part of a national movement to expand access to dental services (i.e., routine, preventive oral health care in low-income, rural communities) to improve overall health outcomes statewide.
Indeed, according to the American Dental Association, about 30% of us, nationally, have difficulty accessing oral health services through the current delivery system. At the same time, “the U.S. health care system is under increasing pressure to improve performance. These changes are being driven by the widespread realization that the costs of the current fragmented system are increasing at alarming rates, and that in spite of spending close to twice the percent of our national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care compared to other developed countries, we have significantly worse health outcomes in general and huge health disparities among subpopulations.”
The above-referenced article also describes some of the factors driving reform of the health care system, and creating pressure to develop and establish a system based on the valueof services … instead of the mere volume of health services provided.
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| The virtual dental home in action at a Head Start Center in CA. |
In oral health, specifically, the emerging Virtual Dental Home (VDH) system of care (known as the SMILES Dental Project, here in Colorado) for vulnerable and underserved populations emphasizes prevention and early intervention, and integrates new approaches and technologies, including:
- Bringing care to people where they are, in nontraditional settings, and partnering with non-dental professionals;
- Expanding the scope of practice for oral health professionals; and
- Using technologies such as telehealth.
Put another way, VDHs are a new model for delivering dental care – especially for children, families and other individuals who aren’t adequately served in usual dental settings.
Coming up next on our blog: how the SMILES Dental Project, specifically, is bringing VDHs to underserved Coloradans by deploying dental hygienists into rural and remote communities, using telehealth to establish and connect a network of dentists, and providing additional training for hygienists to expand the services they provide.
