Strategies to integrate oral health into primary care (e.g., training/education of non-dental primary care professionals, policy/financing and health-insurance changes, colocation of dental and medical services, interprofessional and community-health-worker collaboration, teledentistry, integrated oral health assessment tools, school-based activities) vs No integration / usual care (or pre-integration baseline; many included studies uncontrolled): Access to oral healthcare (referral pathways, documentation processes, operating efficiencies, staffing, visits for oral health issues, uptake of fluoride varnish/other preventive treatment, and visits to an oral health professional)
Most strategies to integrate oral health into primary care were associated with improved access to oral healthcare (19 studies, narrative synthesis; ungraded).
What each review found
Current versions only| Finding | Effect | Studies | GRADE certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
Strategies to integrate oral health into primary care (e.g., training/education of non-dental primary care professionals, policy/financing and health-insurance changes, colocation of dental and medical services, interprofessional and community-health-worker collaboration, teledentistry, integrated oral health assessment tools, school-based activities) vs No integration / usual care (or pre-integration baseline; many included studies uncontrolled) Access to oral healthcare (referral pathways, documentation processes, operating efficiencies, staffing, visits for oral health issues, uptake of fluoride varnish/other preventive treatment, and visits to an oral health professional) · People of all ages and abilities served through primary care and related settings (children, pregnant women, older… · Primary care, community, school, and aged-care/residential/nursing-home settings Most strategies to integrate oral health into primary care were associated with improved access to oral healthcare (19 studies, narrative synthesis; ungraded). Strategies to integrate oral health into primary care: a systematic review. (2023) All outcomes | Access to oral healthcare was the primary outcome most studied (n=19). Most studies reported results favouring the integration strategy, including improvements in referral pathways, documentation processes, operating… | 19 studies | GRADE not reported |
Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.
The reviews
| Review | Searched up to | Included studies | AMSTAR 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategies to integrate oral health into primary care: a systematic review. 2023 All outcomes | No date limits, until the third week of June 2022 | 75 | Moderate / Moderate |
Studies behind the findings
None of these reviews ties its included studies to this outcome in the data here. Cochrane reviews and reviews with headline outcomes only do not list their studies yet.
How reviews are matched to this question
Reviews word the same question differently. Four decision models (TypeSafe's Jev, Liquid AI's d1-ultra, SubQ Snap and Baseten's Elephant) judged each wording of the population, intervention, comparator and outcome against the others; two wordings count as the same when at least three of them agree and none clearly disagrees, and findings count as this question only when all four elements match. Timing, setting and subgroup never split a question: they are shown on each finding.