When it comes to healthcare services, one of the most overlooked aspects is dental health. Most people only seek dental services when experiencing toothache or gum pain and swelling. That’s why dental offices play a crucial role in promoting and maintaining public dental health.
In this post, you’ll learn the importance of dental offices in the healthcare industry. In that way, you’ll become aware of the impacts of dental health services to your overall health and the benefits of choosing the best dental services in your local area for your dental needs.
Effective and Efficient Dental Health Collaboration
The healthcare industry, along with private and government agencies, work together with dental healthcare professionals to address dental health needs and demands of various age groups. Through a collaborative effort, more people will have access to quality dental services to decrease the morbidity associated with poor dental practices and conditions.
Here are the dental health topics needing tight collaboration among agencies and organizations within the healthcare sector:
- The role of Medicaid in providing accessible and affordable oral health services to the people. It’s a good thing that affordable dental health services are available in Oregon, so find out more by checking crisdental.com – Eugene.
- Look into the emerging state initiatives, legislative reforms, and workforce models to increase access to quality care.
- The collaboration of local and state stakeholders to reduce prohibitive supervision, take advantage of the current oral hygiene workforce, improve license reciprocity, use innovative delivery models, and expand the scope of dental hygiene practices.
Avoid Poor Dental Health-Related Medical Conditions
Dental health problems may lead to other issues when neglected. Many people don’t realize that oral problems may cause serious health problems. That’s why it’s essential to see your dentist every six months or as needed to make sure that all your oral health issues are resolved.
Here are the possible effects and medical conditions arising from poor dental health:
- Heart Disease: Dental caries or oral infection carry harmful bacteria that may aggravate or initiate early heart disease like rheumatic heart disease.
- Gastrointestinal System Problems: Aside from losing your appetite because of toothaches or gum disease, oral problems may also cause inflammatory bowel syndrome, gastroenteritis, and other GI infections. Malnutrition also results, most notably among children and the elderly, who opt not to eat because of intolerable oral pain.
- Poor Academic Performance: Children with neglected dental health may lose focus on academic tasks and even extracurricular activities, affecting school performance.
Address Dental Health Issues
Dental offices help address different dental health issues, such as dental caries and gum diseases. In the United States alone, many adults and children have untreated dental caries that could result in serious health problems if not addressed immediately. While the dental health statistics show more people are seeking dental services, the results are still a major cause of concern when it comes to overall health.
Here’s what dental health statistics show according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control or CDC:
- 6% of children aged 5 to 19 years old have untreated dental caries (2011 to 2014)
- 6% of adults aged 20 to 44 years old have untreated dental caries (2011 to 2014)
- 6% of children aged 2 to 17 years old had a dental visit (2016)
- 4% of adults aged 18 to 64 years old had a dental visit (2016)
- 3% of adults aged 65 years old and over had a dental visit (2016)
Accessibility to Quality Dental Health Services
Oral health is an integral aspect of good overall health, so it’s essential to have healthy teeth and gums. That’s why access to quality dental services is vital to maintaining and promoting good oral health. However, those people who are more likely in need of dental care are usually the ones who least likely receive it. Having trusted and reputable dental offices near you provide you more options. Dental hygiene professionals play a crucial role in the resolution of all types of oral health disparities. However, there are critical issues in oral healthcare access, even in the United States.
Here are the critical issues when it comes to accessibility of dental care services:
- Lack of professional training on the latest oral health guidelines
- Low oral health literacy
- Patient misconceptions and perceptions about preventive dental health care
- Shortage of dentists
- Deficient continuity of oral care due to inefficient interdisciplinary collaboration
- Low socioeconomic status
Conclusion
The importance of dental offices in your local area can’t be discounted. Dental health professionals should abide by current dental health guidelines, and the public should also seek dental health services regularly to address the major dental health issues in the country. With accessible, quality, and affordable dental health services, the rate of morbidity and other dental health-related problems will decrease.
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