Penn Dental Medicine to Host Webinar Series Addressing Medical/Dental Healthcare Collaboration

Philadelphia – Penn Dental Medicine, in collaboration with the National Coalition of Dentists for Health Equity (NCDHE), is hosting a series that is bringing together visionary leaders to explore the importance of integrating oral health into whole health policy and practice.

This four-part, Zoom-webinar series will cover the wide-reaching implications of the current changes to the nation’s health system and highlight a critical path forward for oral health through medical-dental healthcare collaboration.

Dr. Caswell A. Evans Jr., NCDHE President, will moderate the first panel discussion on September 10.

The first session — Oral Health in Transition: Charting a Collaborative Path Forward – will be held September 10 from 6-7:30 pm (EST) and feature a panel moderated by Caswell A. Evans Jr., DDS, MPH, NCDHE President and Adjunct Professor within Penn Dental Medicine’s Center for Integrative Global Oral Health.  The panel will include:

• the President of the American Dental Association, Brett Kessler, DDS, a general dentist in Denver, who played a key role in establishing Colorado’s adult Medicaid dental benefit;
• Patty Braun, MD, MPH, FAAP, a pediatrician at Denver Health, a large safety-net healthcare system, who directs the Rocky Mountain Network for Oral Health Integration;
• Dushanka V. Kleinman, DDS, MScD, a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health, who served as Deputy Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and as the Chief Dental Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service; and
• Mark Deutchman, MD, Professor of Family Medicine and Director Rural Health Program, University of Colorado.

Among the areas of discussion will be the domino effects of federal and state disinvestment in oral health infrastructure; firsthand accounts of the erosion of the local safety net and its real-world impacts; the promise of team-based, integrated interprofessional care models to stabilize and strengthen systems; and advocacy strategies to enhance oral health as integral to overall health at the forefront of public health policy.

The other programs in the series will include “Integration at the Clinical Level,” October 15; “Integration at the Community Level,” November 19;  and “Call to Action – Policy and Advocacy,” December 10.

Registration is free for the entire series with Penn Dental Medicine awarding attendees 1.5 continuing dental education lecture credits for each program.