Taking Emergency Departments Out of Oral Health Care

These strategies will help ensure that vulnerable children receive routine and preventive oral care in dental — rather than medical — settings.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
After reading this course, the participant should be able to:

1. Identify the reasons children utilize hospital emergency departments (ED) for dental treatment.
2. Discuss strategies for expanding access to dental care in an attempt to encourage treatment by oral health professionals, rather than ED staff.
3. Explain the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s essential benefit for children’s oral health services.

This course was issued in the November 2016 issue and expires 11/30/19. The authors have no commercial conflicts of interest to disclose. This 2 credit hour self-study activity is electronically mediated.