Report outlines challenges for oral health

A new report on dental care calls for improving quality through better use of electronic health data, quality measures, payment incentives and expanded use of non-dental professionals to deliver care.

The report, funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the DentaQuest Institute, tracks closely with similar studies in other medical specialties that have outlined ways to get the U.S. healthcare system to pay for quality rather than quantity. 

Unlike other types of medical care, however, oral health can't rely on Medicare to drive change.

• Limited evidence of best practices for most dental procedures, leading to widespread variation in clinical decisions among dentists;

• The fact that government only pays for about 6 percent of dental care nationally, and dental practices and their patients are not part of a larger provider organization pushing for improvements; and

• Few incentives to put in place quality improvement programs.

"The focus on quality improvement for overall health care is an important opportunity to improve the quality of oral health care," study author Paul Glassman said in a statement. "The biggest problem now is we are developing many measures, but they need to be connected to performance of the system."