Hospital Dental Hygiene Consult Service Practice Framework
The University of Minnesota is bringing dental hygienists directly into hospital care teams to provide bedside oral assessments, treatment, and coordinated support for patients with complex medical needs.
About the Program
The Hospital Dental Hygiene Consult Service Practice Framework integrates registered dental hygienists into acute hospital care teams at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
Through a formal referral process within the electronic health record, hospital professionals can request bedside dental hygiene consultations. The service connects oral assessment, preventive and therapeutic care, diagnostic imaging, and clinical triage with the patient’s broader medical care.
Dental hygienists work under a collaborative practice arrangement with general dentist supervision.
Who It Serves
The service supports hospitalized patients with complex medical needs, including those admitted to psychiatric, medical, surgical, and oncology units.
Patients may need assistance with neglected oral hygiene, dental pain, oral discomfort, or concerns about potential sources of infection.
Organization: University of Minnesota School of Dentistry / University of Minnesota Medical Center
Sector: Workforce / Integrated Delivery Systems
Setting: Urban academic medical center
Established: 2020
The Gap It Addresses
Oral health can fall outside routine hospital care, leaving patients with unmet needs during an already challenging period.
Medical teams may have limited oral health training, while hospital dental services often focus on complex procedures. Nursing teams face competing demands and may lack the specialized training, tools, and workflows needed to address more complex oral conditions.
The framework addresses this gap by making dental hygienists part of the inpatient team and creating a structured pathway for bedside consultation and care.
How the Approach Works
Physicians, nurses, therapists, and hospital dentists can request a dental hygiene consultation through the electronic health record.
Depending on the patient’s needs, services include:
- Oral health assessment: Bedside evaluation using the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT).
- Quality-of-life assessment: Use of the five-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-5) to understand how oral conditions affect the patient.
- Diagnostic support: Intraoral photography and portable dental radiographs in collaboration with a dentist.
- Bedside care: Individualized oral hygiene support and preventive or therapeutic services.
- Clinical triage: Assessment of oral concerns and coordination with dental and medical colleagues.
This approach makes oral health expertise available within the hospital workflow and supports shared care planning across professions.
Evidence and Findings
A 2025 study by Flavin and colleagues examined records from 24 patients who received dental hygiene consultations during inpatient psychiatric care at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
Dental pain was the most common reason for consultation, accounting for 16 of 24 referrals, or 66.7%. The average time from admission to consultation was 17 days.
Dental pain was associated with poorer oral health-related quality of life across all four measured dimensions: oral function, orofacial pain, orofacial appearance, and psychosocial impact.
The study highlights unmet oral health needs within this patient group. Its small, retrospective sample did not establish the service’s effects on infection rates, length of stay, or hospital costs.
Current Status
According to the submission, the service has been operational since 2020 and is in the scaling and replication stage.
The framework offers an approach for other health systems seeking to integrate dental hygienists into inpatient care, with implementation adapted to local clinical workflows, funding arrangements, and practice requirements.
