Resource Highlights:
Focus on the Dental Home
This collection of selected resources offers high-quality information about the dental home. Use the tools below for further searching, or contact us for personalized assistance.
The dental home is the ongoing relationship between the dentist and the patient, inclusive of all aspects of oral health care delivered in a comprehensive, continuously accessible, coordinated, and family-centered way. Establishment of a dental home begins no later than at 12 months and includes referral to dental specialists when appropriate. Read more in OHRC's Head Start Frequently Asked Questions.
Selected Materials in the OHRC Library
Center for Health Care Strategies. 2010. A "high-touch" approach to improving oral health for Newark children. Hamilton, NJ: Center for Health Care Strategies.
This brief describes the New Jersey Medicaid program for providing oral health care to low-income children. It discusses how the program provides access to oral health care and creates a "dental home" for Head Start children in the state. The brief also describes program goals, keys to success, and how to build on healthy results.
Clark M, Holt K. 2008. Dentists and Head Start: What you should know and how you can help. Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center.
This tip sheet provides information about how dentists can help address the oral health needs of pregnant women, infants, and children enrolled in Head Start. Topics include an overview of the Head Start program, information on children's access to services and oral health status, and promising approaches to providing care for Head Start participants.
Clifford R. 2009. Every child needs a dental home. Sacramento, CA: California Department of Public Health, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Oral Health Program.
This pamphlet for parents and other caregivers addresses the importance of taking infants and young children to a dentist for regular visits. The pamphlet is available in Chinese, English, Hmong, Korean, and Spanish.
Edelstein BL. 2008. Environmental factors in implementing the dental home for all young children. Washington, DC: National Oral Health Policy Center at Children's Dental Health Project.
This paper explores environmental forces relevant to adopting and implementing the dental home for children. Topics include the advent of “social medicine”; early childhood caries risk and disease management; oral health and oral health care disparities; perceived need for oral health services and barriers to dental home utilization; dentistry as a profession; and dental-system capacity for children, including those with special health care needs.
Holthouse S, Browne ME, Holt K. 2009. The dental home: Summary from an MCHB expert meeting. Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center.
This report summarizes a meeting of experts held on September 18-19, 2008, in Washington, DC, to define the concept of a dental home. Topics include exploring the concept as it relates to the philosophy and goals of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, relationships between the medical and dental home concepts, concepts defining and establishing dental homes, and identifying promising practices and programs for implementing dental homes.
U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau. 2011. Collaboration and action to improve child health systems: Toolkit for state leaders. Rockville, MD: U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
This toolkit provides an approach to mapping the child health system in a state so state leaders can better envision the flow of services and funding that support access to care for children and families and identify opportunities for improvement. It contains system diagrams and discussion questions on the dental home (see section 8).
VanLandeghem K. 2011. Children's oral health in the health home. Washington, DC: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Policy Center.
This issue of TrendNotes discusses the importance of a client-centered health home that includes overall health, oral health, and mental health care to improving children's health. It explores the integration of oral health care with overall health care and discusses federal opportunities, particularly those under the Affordable Care Act, for promoting a health home for children and their families.
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Selected Websites
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association of Public Health Dentistry
Office of Head Start
Oral Health Bureau, Iowa Department of Health
Texas Department of State Health Services
Find more organizations in OHRC's Organizations Database.
December 2011
