Research to assist in oral health workforce planning
OHWRC is engaged in a number of research projects aimed to assess the current oral health workforce and the delivery of oral health services in the US, and to assist federal and state policy makers in future oral health workforce planning.
Current research projects include:
- Exploring trends in the development of the dental service organization model and their implications for the oral health workforce and access to services
- Investigating the evolving pipeline of Hispanic dentists in the US and its practice and policy implications
- An assessment of the contributions of mobile and portable dentistry programs to improve population oral health
- Researching trends in the provision of oral health services by FQHCs and identifying contributing factors
- Developing a graphic visualization to help policy makers understand the wide variation in state-level dental hygiene scope of practice
- Exploring the impact of a teledentistry program on acess to services and oral health outcomes in the patient population
- Assessing the impact of the dental hygiene scope of practice on oral health outcomes
- Conducting further study of state-level policies that affect access to dental services in long-term care settings
- Generating state and sub-state maps of oral health training sites, substance abuse treatment centers, and FQHCs and look-alike clinics that provide comprehensive oral health services