Description: Primary care providers (PCPs) regularly provide first-line therapies for managing common diseases, such as Albuterol for asthma, Metformin for diabetes, or Amoxicillin for infection, and coordinate with specialists as needed. For tooth decay, as with other common diseases, specialty care (dentistry) might be best, but large portions of the population lack access to regular care. In the past eight years, silver diamine fluoride (SDF) became available in the U.S., was prioritized for clinicians in an ADA guideline, and was added to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Lists of Essential Medicines for children and for adults – cementing SDF as a first-line therapy for the most common disease – tooth decay. In July 2023, a new CPT medical billing code for SDF will become available, empowering medical teams to offer SDF directly. In this session we will brainstorm ways for ASTDD and AAPHD to support appropriate use of SDF by medical teams through policy, reimbursement, medical-dental integration training, and public awareness. Considering that PCPs diagnose caries more than dentists, and routinely authorize sedation and general anesthesia as first-line treatments for tooth decay, it is time to transform the conversation. It is also time to transform the standard of care, with the flagship noninvasive caries therapy: SDF.
