December 2018

Background: In order to address the burden of oral disease, the dental profession needs to engage in collaborative practice with medical professionals. The aim of this study was to explore dentists’ views on incorporating oral health collaborative practice into primary medical care in Ireland. Setting: Dublin Dental University Hospital, Ireland. Participants: Dentists with backgrounds in oral surgery, oral medicine, paediatric dentistry, special care dentistry, prosthodontics, primary care dentistry, hospital dentistry and public dental health. All participants were working in, or had worked in, Dublin Dental University Hospital for a minimum of six months full-time equivalent within the previous 5 years. Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken in five phases, transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed. Results: A total of 17 participants were recruited. After 14 interviews, no new themes were emerging and data saturation was achieved. Eleven codes were identified and organized into four themes; (i) the relative importance of oral health to systemic health, (ii) the role of dentistry in the overall health care team, (iii) oral health interprofessional education and training, (iv) opportunities for oral health collaborative practice. Conclusion: Dentists felt that the best way to achieve effective oral health collaborative practice with primary medical care would be to educate medical professionals on how to identify the significant risk factors for oral disease, how to promote oral health and how to facilitate access to primary dental care for their patients. Keywords: Oral health; oral health promotion; health education; primary health care