It also identified the Oral Healthcare provider Team as the most susceptible of Healthcare workers other than the ones directly involved with the care and diagnosis of patients suffering or suspected of being infectious. Among the participants of this Public/Private group, we had leaders from NIH, NIDCR, and many other governmental areas. We also had on the organizations of the private sector like the ADA, AGD, HDA, NDA, SAID, Santa Fe Group, and too many others to list. By the way, their slogan is Improving Lives Through Oral Health. We had the most diverse group of stakeholders ever assembled to provide ideas and solutions to the challenges being encountered at that time. Many of these people felt the lack of synergy between Medicine and Dentistry which became more apparent by the Pandemic. Oral Healthcare leaders like Terry Dolan, Steve Kess, Kathy O’Loughlin, and many others, myself included, brought up the disconnect that was observed during the Pandemic Quarantine. The Medical establishment was not taking into account the Dental profession as a primary component of the HealthCare team. The global response would have been more impactful having taken all stakeholders including oral health providers into account. A fractionalized healthcare system and its patients suffered unnecessary tolls. Less trained and adept individuals in healthcare unilaterally substituted in a role dental professionals excelled at. We, in oral health, adopted infection control protocols before the Hospitals and the Medical offices had them. We handle more oral cavities and needles than any other healthcare professional.
Interdisciplinary Health: there is a way. Manuel A. Cordero, DDS, CPH, MAGD. Executive Director & CEO, HDA Change in Public Health is often moved by groundbreaking events and in 2020 we experienced the Covid-19 Pandemic. The global population was easily infected and over 6.2 million souls have been lost to date.1 In many countries, treatment was not equally provided. What became apparent was how the Determinants of Health affected individuals in different Socioeconomic areas. Morbidity was equally spread, but mortality was not, it was highest among Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans, versus other ethnic groups in our nation.
The concept of bringing together the stakeholders from diverse backgrounds was as visionary as Dr. Satcher’s inclusion of Oral Health as an integral component of Systemic Health. David Satcher, MD, our first African American to become Surgeon General of the USA, gave us his unique and visionary perspective on how Oral Health was an integral part of Systemic Health back in 2000. He changed the Medical Health history and the landscape of our country since he was the first Surgeon General to point out what he had experienced firsthand, oral disease resulted in negative effects on patients’ health and wellbeing.
Dr. Timothy Ricks, Chief Dental Officer for the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), took the initiative to convene critical Government departments as well as Oral Health care leaders to systematically address what was becoming a nebulous and fractionalized response to our first Global Pandemic in our present generation. The USPHS leader of the Dental team had the initiative, by convening all stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by this worldwide event. It united professionals interested in improving health outcomes for our population seen from an oral health perspective. Covid-19 demonstrated the primary role the oral cavity and its surrounding structures played in this pathogen's development, diagnosis, treatment, and amelioration. The oro-nasopharyngeal cavities were key players in the evolution and management of the disease. The Covid-19 Pandemic dramatically evidenced how the mouth is the gateway that is intrinsically linked to systemic health.
Leaders in Oral Health Insurance, like Mike Monopoli, from CareQuest Institute of Oral Health, were stimulated by the discussions held in the Public/Private Pandemic Task Force and took a leading role in continuing the group originally started by our First Dental Officer of the USPHS.
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