Oral diseases constitute a silent public health crisis. Globally, oral diseases are by far the most prevalent category of noncommunicable disease, affecting an estimated 3.4 billion individuals. This is more than triple the global burden of mental health conditions (967 million) and nearly seven times that of cardiovascular diseases (522 million). Moreover, oral diseases disproportionately burden vulnerable populations, including low-income adults, certain racial and ethnic minorities, children, older adults, and people with disabilities. And yet, despite the magnitude of the problem, oral health remains chronically sidelined within the broader health policy and health services research landscape. We’re trying to address this at the upcoming Annual Research Meeting this June.
In the United States, dental care is the most overlooked form of health care—not due to a lack of demand, but because patients either cannot afford it, encounter barriers to access, or are unaware of its significance due to inadequate education and public messaging around oral and overall health. The consequences are profound. Patients suffer from preventable pain, reduced quality of life, missed work and school, and emergency department visits that could have been avoided with timely dental care. Clinicians—particularly those serving marginalized populations—face persistent frustration as they attempt to deliver whole-person care within systems that isolate dental from medical care. The health care system itself absorbs the inefficiencies of this division, perpetuating higher costs and poorer outcomes for conditions that are, in many cases, entirely preventable.
The fragmentation of dental and medical care is a relic of historical decisions—not evidence-based policymaking. Dentistry developed outside the medical care system, with separate education, insurance, and delivery structures. That separation persists today in everything from electronic health record systems to provider networks to public health priorities. This siloed structure undermines integrated care efforts, frustrates clinicians trying to provide whole-person care, and leaves patients navigating an unnecessarily complex system. It’s a structure that breeds inequity and inefficiency.
This historical separation has had lasting consequences in care delivery and how oral health is perceived, prioritized, and funded across the broader health policy landscape. The AcademyHealth Oral Health Interest Group has worked persistently to bring attention to the critical role of oral health. Yet, despite these sustained efforts, oral health remains peripheral to health services and policy discourse. We have consistently highlighted the consequences of systemic neglect, but our limited visibility within the health policy community has hindered our ability to drive meaningful policy change. When oral health is absent from health delivery discussions, it fails to influence funding streams, programmatic priorities, and policy discourse. During major moments of policy innovation—such as the COVID-19 pandemic—oral health was largely absent from federal response frameworks, despite clear implications for infection control, chronic disease management, and workforce deployment. Moreover, the optional status of adult dental benefits in Medicaid leaves these benefits especially vulnerable during times of fiscal constraint. Historically, these benefits are among the first to be eliminated during budget cuts—a trend that, in the current political and economic climate, poses a serious threat to our work and population health outcomes and costs.
The oral health community cannot reverse this paradigm alone. We urgently need our colleagues across the health services and policy research spectrum—those working in Medicaid, Medicare, maternal and child health, behavioral health, aging, chronic disease, health economics, and others —to engage with oral health as an essential element of population health and overall well-being. Dental care is not a niche issue. It is a critical lever in improving access, advancing equity, and controlling costs. We call on colleagues across the health services and policy research spectrum to integrate oral health into your research models, policy analyses, and equity frameworks. Collaboratively, we can expand the evidence base and policy momentum to support full integration of dental care into Medicaid, Medicare, and our health delivery systems. Together, we can shift the narrative—asserting not only that oral health is not a luxury, but that it is a non-negotiable component of comprehensive, person-centered care.
What can you do now?
If you share this vision for a more integrated and equitable health care system, we invite you to complete a brief survey (1 min to complete) to help us identify opportunities for meaningful collaboration. Your insights will guide us in building interdisciplinary partnerships that can advance systemic change.
We also encourage you to attend our special session hosted by the Oral Health Interest Group at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on Monday, June 9th (1:45pm to 3pm). This session will focus on the centrality of oral health to overall health and will highlight strategic areas for cross-sector research, advocacy, and impact. We especially welcome researchers whose primary focus may lie outside of oral health, but who recognize oral health’s critical role in building a more responsive and compassionate health care system. Please consider attending and supporting us.
It’s time to stop treating oral health as optional. Oral health is health. Let’s work together because the mouth has always been—undeniably—part of the body.