GENERAL SESSION: The Dental Hygienist as a Non-Physician Primary Care Provider: Exploring the Role of Dental Hygienists in Medical Screening
(Room Texas C)
02 Aug 19
10:30 AM
-
12:30 PM
Tracks:
Oral-Systemic Health
As the US population continues to expand, there will be a greater number of people who live with chronic diseases. With the shortage of primary healthcare providers (e.g., physicians and nurses), detection and management of these diseases poses a challenge for our current healthcare delivery system. The concept of Non-Physician Primary Care Providers provides an alternative approach to meeting the needs of these at-risk populations. The American Academy of Family Practitioners (AAFP) defines Non-Physician Primary Care Providers as “providers of health care other than physicians who render some primary care services. Such providers may include nurse practitioners, physician assistants and some other health care providers.” Oral healthcare providers (OHCPs), more specifically dental hygienists, are uniquely positioned to provide many of the services the AAFP includes in its definition of primary care, including such things as “health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counseling, patient education, diagnosis, and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of health care settings.” Although OHCPs cannot diagnose medical conditions, hygienists can use questionnaires, visual examination, manual measurements and salivary diagnostics to screen patients for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, poor glycemic control, HPV, HIV, hypertension, dermatological lesions, various cancers, and biometric health, among other things. Indeed, we are entering a new era in healthcare when medical-dental integration has already began to evolve. The expectation is that OHCPs will become more involved in the early diagnosis, risk assessment and management of various medical conditions. Failure to embrace this change would forfeit one of the greatest opportunities dental hygienists have ever had to define themselves within the healing arts.