PCPCC National Briefing- Oral Health in Primary Care: A Framework for Action

Primary care teams, providing comprehensive care within a patient-centered medical home, have the clinical competencies, infrastructure, and relationships necessary to improve oral health and reduce oral health disparities. Yet few primary care practices include oral health as a component of routine medical care. The PCPCC is proud to endorse a new Oral Health Delivery Framework that emphasizes the importance of health and helps delineate the oral health activities that primary care teams can begin to integrate into practices, like many community health centers and pediatric practices do today. Developed with input from a Technical Expert Panel, and published in June 2015, the Framework is being tested in more than a dozen diverse primary care practices nationwide. The speakers shared experiences and early data from these sites’ integration efforts; and discussed lessons learned, challenges, and solutions.