Medical–Dental Integration in Action
Oral health is health
Many common, chronic diseases are connected to poor oral health. But, too often, our system isn’t set up to treat the body and the mouth together. Technology, communication, and payment structures are often separate, making it challenging to provide whole-person care for patients.
Everyone working in health care — from providers to payers — has a role to play in improving this system.
CareQuest Institute is focused on leading this change. We know that oral health is health. And through research, advocacy, strategic partnerships, philanthropy, and education, we’re working to help create a more integrated system that leads to lower costs, better patient experiences, and better health care outcomes.
Stats
2-3x
People with gum disease have 2 to 3 times the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or severe cardiovascular event.
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40%
40% of pregnant women have some form of periodontal disease, which may contribute to preeclampsia and miscarriage.
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86%
Diabetes raises the risk of developing gum disease (periodontitis) by 86%.
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27M
27 million people see a dentist but not a physician each year.
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Diabetes and Oral Health
There is a well-established and bi-directional link between diabetes and periodontal (gum) disease. Diabetes raises the risk of developing gum disease by 86%, and untreated gum disease makes it harder to manage blood glucose levels. And many people with diabetes living in the US may not know they have it.
Screening for diabetes in the dental office can help. A large-scale systematic review found that dental chairside HbA1c screening identified more than 11% of previously undiagnosed dental patients as having type 2 diabetes and an additional 47% as having prediabetes.
Cardiovascular Health and Oral Health
Emerging research has established links between oral health and heart issues, too. Poor oral health, including gum disease, causes bacteria to grow in the mouth. These germs can enter our bloodstream and travel to our heart, which can then cause inflammation. People with gum disease have 2 to 3 times the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or severe cardiovascular event.
While poor oral health is not the sole cause of these threats, research shows other strong connections between our oral hygiene and heart health.
Pregnancy and Oral Health
During pregnancy, oral health care is essential, yet often underutilized. In fact, 40% of pregnant women have some form of periodontal disease, which may contribute to preeclampsia and miscarriage.
Adequate prenatal and postnatal care, better interprofessional communication between oral health and maternal health providers, and policies to strengthen Medicaid coverage can significantly improve these poor outcomes, especially for Black women.
Financial Impacts
$42B
Including periodontal treatment in Medicare could save more than $42 billion annually for patients with diabetes and patients with heart disease.
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$5.9K
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$3.9B
More than 1.6 million emergency department visits for non-traumatic dental conditions cost the health care system $3.9 billion annually.
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Featured Partnerships
Henry Schein: BRIDGE Health Network
Established by Henry Schein and CareQuest, BRIDGE is a curated network of health care professionals committed to advancing systemic models of care and strengthening disease prevention through medical-dental integration. The initiative’s inaugural pilots focus on incorporating diabetes screenings into routine dental hygiene visits. Participating care teams provide point-of-care testing, share educational resources, and coordinate follow-up care—helping identify risks earlier and connect patients to the support they need.
Innovaccer: Integrated Medical and Dental Data
Through this partnership, CareQuest Institute and Innovaccer link medical and dental claims and clinical data through Innovaccer’s Humbi platform, drawing on Innovaccer’s expertise in unifying complex health data at scale. By creating a more complete, longitudinal view of patient health, the collaboration supports deeper insights into how oral health influences overall patient outcomes and total cost of care. The collaboration explores how these insights can inform interventions that improve care coordination and support more effective, person-centered health care delivery.
NxtCare: Integrating Oral Health Insights into Home-Based Care Settings
This partnership focuses on home health patients, a high-risk population that is traditionally underrepresented in oral health evaluation across the broader health care continuum. By systematically analyzing oral health assessments within post-acute settings, NxtCare and CareQuest generate clinical intelligence that connects oral health status to broader health outcomes. These insights equip providers, payers, and ACOs with the data needed to improve care quality, reduce costs driven by unaddressed oral health conditions, and accelerate access to treatment before conditions escalate.
PDS Health: Integrated Blood Pressure Screenings
As strong evidence exists on the connection between oral and cardiovascular health, CareQuest and PDS Health are working together to standardize and scale workflows for blood pressure screenings and patient consultation across its dental and integrated care practices. This initiative generates insights on the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension detectable through dental settings, estimate medical cost savings associated with earlier detection and referral into medical care, and strengthen the business case for scale.