patient-centered care C D A J O U R N A L , V O L 4 9 , Nº 1 0
Pediatric Patient-Centered Care in General Dentistry: We’re Closer Than You Might Think Kimberly J. Hammersmith, DDS, MPH, MS; Susan A. Fisher-Owens, MD, MPH; and Paul S. Casamassimo, DDS, MS
abstract Patient-centered care (PCC) respects the individual and interacting contributions of the patient, family, community and environment to disease manifestation and health maintenance. This paper gives an overview of PCC in general health care, explains PCC aspects already in play in the prevention and treatment children receive from pediatric dentists and serves as a primer for general dental practitioners to incorporate PCC principles into their care of children. Keywords: Patient-centered care, pediatric dentistry, dental caries
AUTHORS Kimberly J. Hammersmith, DDS, MPH, MS, is an associate professor and the director of the advanced education program in pediatric dentistry at The Ohio State University College of Dentistry in Columbus. She is also a member of the section of dentistry at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None reported.
Susan A. Fisher-Owens, MD, MPH, is a professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and the department of preventive and restorative dental sciences in the School of Dentistry. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None reported. Paul S. Casamassimo, DDS, MS, is a member of the section of dentistry at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a professor emeritus of pediatric dentistry at The Ohio State University College of Dentistry in Columbus. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None reported.
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ealth interventions have evolved from a time when widespread illness, lack of scientific understanding and limited effective interventions ruled health care with a one-size-fits-all approach to today’s more sophisticated understanding of diseases, individual susceptibility and the role of social factors in their acquisition and management. Dental caries in children exemplifies a disease that has transitioned in the U.S. from a pandemic to a condition selectively affecting children due to individual characteristics and social circumstances. For dental practitioners, this means tailoring prevention and therapy to the child and family rather than applying rigid models of care that may be wasteful and ineffective. In pediatric dentistry, patient-centered care (PCC), or more aptly, family-/child-centered care, has
evolved due to more than a half-century of caries-focused epidemiology, research into treatment advances building upon the Keyes caries initiation model (a triad that requires host, substrate and cariogenic bacteria)1 and development of evidence-based guidelines as the basis of the standard of care.2 Caries risk assessment, selective use of fluorides, nonsurgical caries management, culturally and socially driven interventions to prevent or mitigate caries and other focused approaches characterize contemporary pediatric dental care. The purpose of this paper is to provide the general dental community, which treats most of the children in the U.S., with some background and understanding of PCC for children as used in contemporary pediatric dentistry practice. We provide the rationale and basic tools to begin to tailor care to O C TOBER 2 0 2 1
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