Dr. Nader Nadershahi, Chair of the American Dental Education Association: Benefits of Integrating Oral and Medical Care

There’s growing interest in the integration of oral healthcare with medical care, and there’s good reason: about 30 million Americans who visit their dentist annually do not have similar contact with a primary care provider. Our guest on this episode of WorkforceRx, Dr. Nader Nadershahi, says this presents a tremendous opportunity for an additional way to identify problems such as diabetes and heart disease in patients. “The mouth is the window to the rest of your body,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. “The more we bring providers together and put the patient at the center of the conversation to get them the care and the access they need, it's going to help not only improve healthcare outcomes, but lower our costs of healthcare delivery.” This collaboration will require shifts in how oral healthcare providers are educated, and Nadershahi will have a significant influence on that as Chair of the Board of the American Dental Education Association and Dean of The University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. Tune into to find out more about the emerging possibilities of interprofessional practice, the workforce challenges in the field of dentistry, and the future of oral healthcare education.