PC1175: Oral Health Prevention Tools for Virtual Encounters/visits

Background: Oral health reflects the physiological, social, and psychological factors that are essential to quality of life. Evidence connects a healthy mouth with a healthy body throughout the life cycle. Despite its importance, many barriers exist to good oral health. Poor oral health may be 85+% preventable with appropriate care. Despite the large burden of disease, its management remains a public health gap.
Oral Health Framework for Telehealth in Non-dental Virtual Visits (OHFT) is a medical/dental collaborative project to improve population oral health through disseminating oral health prevention information in virtual encounters/visits. OHFT is led by the PA AAP Healthy Teeth, Healthy Children, with guidance from a larger diverse multidisciplinary Advisory Group. Input from 150+ diverse Focus Group participants will inform the project. OHFT will define oral health prevention tools representing “value” in “non-dental” virtual visits and teach incorporation of these tools. Population oral health will be improved through use of these tools in virtual encounters.

Methods: The OHFT project began in January, 2022. A diverse Advisory Group, IRB exemption from WCG, a script of questions for focus groups, and a list of 150+ potential focus group participants were created. The first set of Oral Health Prevention Education Tools for virtual visits will be created in the second half of 2022 using input from consultants, qualitative automated intelligence tools, piloting practices, and an ongoing Learning Collaborative composed of the Advisory Group and piloting pediatric practices initially.
During Years 2-6, a best practice guide will be created. OHFT and the Learning Collaborative will add virtual education tools, CPT/RVU code generation, Bright Futures/USPSTF recommendations, and additional tools. The Learning Collaborative will be expanded to include additional practices and groups piloting the tools.

Results: Input thus far has focused on education topics, suggestions for media development, embedding information into websites, and electronic vehicles for information transmission - among them QR codes and videos. Professional cohort participants have expressed concerns about minimizing time needed to transmit information. Groups involving parents have spoken about helping young children to incorporate oral hygiene measures and strategies to sustain them. Common obstacles to delivering the messages have been described.
Focus group input is currently organized into 4 general categories: Education, Timing, Modalities, and Limitations to facilitate development of the best practice tools which we will present in this session.

Conclusion: Preliminary conclusions regarding possible tools and modalities will be available by October, 2022.