The American Dental Education Association commends the Surgeon General for releasing the Report on Oral Health, the first of its kind, said Rowland A. Hutchinson, D.D.S., ADEA President , The report emphasizes the important role dental education institutions can play in delivering patient care, translating dental and craniofacial research to benefit the general public, and educating the finest practitioners of dental medicine in the world.
Patient care is a primary mission of dental schools and other academic dental institutions.
For example, dental education institutions provide comprehensive oral health care to a largely underserved and disadvantaged patient population and play a major role in reducing oral health disparities across the United States . The Surgeon General reports that 108 million Americans do not have private dental insurance. About half of these patients are on Medicare or Medicaid, while more than a third have no insurance coverage or government assistance program to help pay for their dental care. Dental schools continue to transfer into practice the wide-ranging benefits of oral and craniofacial research so the general public benefits. Oral health is an important aspect of overall health, and there is evidence of a connection between oral health and systemic disease.