A Sea Change in Health Care

PDS is leading the way in dental-medical integration with 10 medical practices, six of which are co-located with dental offices, to improve patient outcomes and reduce overall health care costs.

While Pacific Dental Services has been an early leader and advocate of dental-medical integration, lately we’ve been putting our money where our *ahem* mouth is.

Over the past five years, PDS has opened six medical practices working in tandem with supported dental offices in Nevada and partnered with four medical offices in Arizona.

In alignment with our strategy to secure vital partnerships, PDS solidified a first-of-its-kind joint venture with MemorialCare health system in Southern California and is set to open several co-located dental and medical practices over the next five years in MemorialCare Medical Group health centers throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties. The medical and dental co-located practices will ensure a seamless coordination of care and easy access to health records for patients and providers by leveraging the power of shared electronic health records through Epic.

Expanding the PDS business model to support health care is an investment in what we have known for some time: dental-medical integration is the future of health care. The four medical offices in Arizona are the beginning of the effort to onboard medical clinical leadership to the PDS team.

We’re proud to introduce and welcome the medical team of partners and leaders:

• Muhammad Ahmad, MD

• Harris Khakwani, MD

• Sultan Mohammad, MD

Providers are seeing the overwhelming benefits of integrated dental and medical care first-hand and early data indicates overall improvement in patient health, including:

• Reduction in body mass index

• Reduction in chronic high-blood pressure

• Reduction or cessation of medication

• Elimination of pre-diabetes symptoms

• Reduction in chronic inflammatory markers

“We’re seeing patients return with seriously reduced or eliminated symptoms thanks to the early detection and preventive treatment we’ve been able to provide at our co-located offices,” said Harris Khakwani, MD. “Through coordination, we can provide more personalized, tailored treatment. This means better health outcomes for patients and reduced long-term effects of chronic illness.”

The two-way referral process between offices is similarly successful. Operations managers report that when patients are referred from a medical practice to a dental office, there is a higher schedule rate, show rate and case acceptance. PDS has long advocated for treatment that reduces bad bacteria in the mouth to help reduce inflammation in the body, which is associated with chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, pregnancy complications and more.

While the data and evidence make a strong case for dental-medical integration, the disconnect between dental and medical disciplines and providers pose a challenge. Many medical schools provide very little oral health education; however, this wasn’t always the case. The nation’s earliest dental schools included physician leadership, but over time and due in part to distinct curriculum and legislation, oral health was decoupled from medical education.

PDS is actively working to integrate the two through new owner dentist (OD) onboarding and training designed to include Mouth-Body Connection education. In part, new ODs say that they are driven to partner with PDS because oral health wasn’t part of their formal education. They never received operational or clinical support to successfully connect patients to oral health providers or to integrate oral care into treatment plans.

“Given the lack of education around oral health as it relates to overall health, PDS serves as an especially valuable partner,” Khakwani said. “PDS provides the education and infrastructure support for a more seamless transition to an integrated office. As a result, we can reap the benefits of shared data to deliver better, faster results — this made the decision to work with PDS a no-brainer.”

By bringing dental and medical providers together, not only do health care outcomes improve, but so do cost savings. Reports show more than $1,000 per capita is saved every year when preventive dental treatment is provided to high-risk groups like those who have diabetes, cardiovascular disease or a history of stroke. At a time when health care costs are a national crisis, this is critical.

Further, Medicare Advantage presents more momentum to fuel the transition to an integrated system as it offers more preventive dental treatment and expanded coverage. In the past, Medicare covered little, if any, oral health care treatment. As a result, Americans over the age of 65 have the lowest rates of dental insurance in the country. This, despite associated risk factors between periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s disease. A recent study found Porphyromonas gingivalis — one of the main bacteria associated with periodontal disease — in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. It is important that oral health be included in the conversation when discussing preventative care and treatment around Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Change is not only on the horizon, it’s already here. PDS is poised to lead the charge to make dental-medical integration a reality ensuring healthier, happier patients in the communities we serve and beyond.