Oral Health as a Pathway to Wellness and Longevity
This curated collection brings together perspectives on whole-person health, integrated care, dental-medical integration, prevention, equity, and aging. Together, these readings frame oral health as a pathway to wellness and longevity, and are meant to ground a more informed and productive discussion across disciplines.
Whole-Person Health
These resources introduce whole-person health as a care model that centers the priorities of people, families and communities while addressing the social, structural, behavioral, and environmental conditions that shape health and well-being.
Whole Person Health: What It Is and Why It’s Important
Why?A foundational overview from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health on what whole-person health means and why it matters for care delivery.
Transforming Health Care to Create Whole Health: Strategies to Assess, Scale, and Spread the Whole Person Approach to Health
Why?A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine project examining strategies for assessing, scaling, and spreading the whole-person approach to health.
How Community Engagement Can Support Whole-Person Primary Care
Why?An Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality topic brief on how community engagement strengthens whole-person primary care.
Integrated Health Care
These articles explore the concept of integrated health care, with emphasis on how more connected clinical, public health, and community-based systems can improve coordination, outcomes, and equity.
Integrated care: meaning, logic, applications, and implications: a discussion paper
Why?Defines integrated care and explains why alignment across financing, management, clinical delivery, and community services is needed to coordinate care for people with complex needs. (2002)
Understanding integrated care: a comprehensive conceptual framework based on the integrative functions of primary care
Why?Presents the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care, a framework for understanding clinical, professional, organizational, system, functional, and normative integration. (2013)
Dental-Medical Integration
These articles examine the evidence, frameworks, barriers, and emerging models for integrating oral health into primary care and broader health systems, highlighting the policy, workforce, clinical, and organizational changes needed to make oral health inseparable from whole-person care.
Strategies to integrate oral health into primary care: a systematic review
Why?Synthesizes evidence on strategies for integrating oral health into primary care, including workforce training, clinical workflows, referral systems, and implementation supports. (2023)
Commentary: What is the evidence on the effectiveness of strategies to integrate oral health into primary care?
Why?A commentary on the systematic review by Christian et al, highlighting what is known and what remains uncertain about integration effectiveness.
Integration of Oral Health into Primary Health Care: a systematic review
Why?Reviews international approaches to embedding oral health into primary health care, emphasizing workforce mix, prevention, collaboration, and health system strengthening. (2019)
From theoretical concepts to policies and applied programmes: the landscape of integration of oral health in primary care
Why?Conceptualizes oral health integration across policy, practice, and program settings, showing how conceptual models translate into implementation approaches. (2018)
Barriers and facilitators in the integration of oral health into primary care: a scoping review
Why?Identifies multilevel barriers and facilitators to oral health integration, including payment, workforce, organizational culture, information systems, and clinical workflow factors. (2017)
Medical-Dental Integration: Dispatches From “Both Sides of the Aisle”
Why?Reflects on medical-dental integration from the perspective of a dual-trained physician-dentist, emphasizing practical, professional, and system barriers. (2025)
Integrating Dentistry into Interprofessional Healthcare: A Scoping Review on Advancing Collaborative Practice and Patient Outcomes
Why?Reviews how dentistry is being incorporated into interprofessional care, with attention to collaborative practice, patient outcomes, and implementation gaps.
Editorial: Integration of oral health care within the healthcare system
Why?Frames oral health integration as a health-system priority and introduces current scholarship on primary care, community health, and oral health policy alignment. (2024)
Developing a Multilayer Framework for Integrating Oral Health into General Health: A Scoping Review from Oral Healthcare Workers’ Perspectives
Why?Develops a multilayer framework describing integration barriers and enabling conditions from oral health workforce perspectives across clinical, organizational, and policy levels. (2026)
Medical-Dental Integration Models and Strategies
These resources highlight tested models, operational strategies, and system-level interventions for scaling medical-dental integration across pediatric, adult, behavioral health, and whole-person care settings.
Innovations in Oral Health and Primary Care Integration
Why?A compendium of oral health-primary care integration examples aligned with comprehensive, coordinated, accessible, and person-centered primary care. (2011)
Returning the Mouth to the Body: Integrating Oral Health & Primary Care
Why?Makes the case for philanthropic and health-system sectors to link oral health as a core component of primary care and population health. (2012)
Integrating Oral Health into Health Professions School Curricula
Why?Describes strategies for embedding oral health competencies into health professions education to prepare clinicians for interprofessional, prevention-oriented care.
Scaling Medical Dental Integration Nationally: Outcomes from the MORE Care Initiative
Why?An overview of the MORE Care Initiative’s outcomes in scaling medical-dental integration across national platforms.
Medical-Dental-Behavioral Integration: Embracing Whole-Person Health
Why?A special issue discussion on models that link oral, behavioral, and systemic health in integrated care systems.
System-Based Intervention for Medical Providers to Improve Dental Attendance in Adult Primary Care
Why?Research detailing system-level interventions designed to boost adult dental attendance via primary care channels.
Delivery of Oral Health Services at Medical Visits through 3 Medical Dental Integration Models
Why?An analysis of three distinct models for delivering oral health services during routine medical visits.
Healthcare Providers’ Oral Health Practices Participating in a Regional Oral Health Intervention
Why?An evaluation of provider practices and adherence within a regional oral health integration intervention.
Medical–Dental Integration: Oral Health (OH-I-CAN®) Program
Why?Insights from the OH-I-CAN program demonstrating practical applications of medical-dental integration.
Preventive and Interdisciplinary Care
These readings focus on preventive oral health interventions, interdisciplinary workflows, provider training needs, and quality improvement strategies that support the integration of dental prevention into routine medical, pediatric, prenatal, and community-based care.
Transforming the Primary Care Oral Health Landscape through Quality Improvement
Why?A look at quality improvement initiatives aimed at transforming how oral health is delivered in primary pediatric care.
Increasing Dental Varnish Rates in a Large Pediatric Care Network: A Quality Improvement Effort
Why?A quality improvement report on strategies that successfully increased dental varnish application rates within a large pediatric network.
Multilevel Interventions and Dental Attendance in Pediatric Primary Care: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial
Why?A randomized clinical trial assessing how multilevel interventions in pediatric primary care impact dental attendance.
Barriers and Facilitators to Delivery of Fluoride Varnish Application in Pediatric Well-Child Visits
Why?A post-implementation analysis identifying the key barriers and facilitators to applying fluoride varnish during well-child visits.
Integrating Fluoride Varnish Delivery in Primary Care: Insights from a Workflow and Cost Analysis
Why?An examination of the operational workflows and cost implications of delivering fluoride varnish in primary care settings.
Changes in Children’s Receipt of Fluoride Varnish
Why?Research tracking trends and changes in the administration of fluoride varnish to children over time.
Identifying training needs of healthcare providers to implement caries risk assessment
Why?A study examining the specific training requirements for healthcare providers adopting caries risk assessment tools.
A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Prenatal Oral Hygiene Education in Pregnancy-Associated Gingivitis
Why?Clinical trial results demonstrating the impact of prenatal oral hygiene education on managing pregnancy-associated gingivitis.
Community Water Fluoridation: Changing Perceptions for the Public Good
Why?A timely perspective on community water fluoridation, public understanding, and the communication challenges that shape policy and perception.
Financial Aid for Dental Students: Implications of Recent Legislation
Why?An overview of how recent legislation may affect dental students, workforce development, and the future accessibility of the profession.
The Case for Oral-Systemic Integration: Is Dental Artificial Intelligence the Missing Link?
Why?A forward-looking discussion of oral-systemic integration and the role artificial intelligence may play in closing longstanding gaps between dental and medical care.
Interdisciplinary Strategies for Improving Oral Health in Older Adults: A Comprehensive Review
Why?A comprehensive review of interdisciplinary strategies for improving oral health in older adults, with relevance for integrated care and healthy aging.
Health Systems, Corporatization, and Equity
These articles examine the structural, financial, organizational, and network forces shaping health care delivery, with attention to their implications for accountability, innovation, equity, and public health outcomes.
Private Equity’s Transformation of American Medicine: Implications for Health Equity
Why?A concise examination of how private equity is reshaping American medicine and what that transformation may mean for health equity.
Defining Health Care “Corporatization”
Why?A useful framing piece that clarifies what corporatization means in health care and why that definition matters in policy and practice.
To Improve US Life Expectancy, a New North Star Is Needed
Why?A call to rethink the metrics and priorities that guide US health policy in light of persistent life expectancy challenges.
Advancing the Science and Scholarship of Health Equity
Why?A perspective on strengthening the evidence base and scholarly infrastructure needed to move health equity from aspiration to action.
Structural Holes and Good Ideas
Why?Explains how brokers spanning disconnected groups are more likely to generate valuable ideas, a useful lens for convening network design. (2004)
