Aligning Smiles and Systems: Dental Integration in the Age of Data

For decades, oral health care has existed in the blind spot of modern healthcare—separated from primary care, largely excluded from quality frameworks, and too often treated as an afterthought. In many organizations, dental services are still tracked in isolation, missing from the data that drives value-based care. Thankfully, that’s changing. As more health centers embrace integrated models and whole-person care, oral health is being recognized as a critical driver of overall outcomes. And with the right strategies, dental care is moving from the margins to the center of coordinated, patient-focused care.

It's time to rethink the role of oral health care in value-based delivery models. With the right tools, dental teams are no longer invisible in care coordination conversations, they’re actively using data to drive innovation, improve operations, and support health equity.

From Silos to Systems: The Rise of Integrated Dental Care 

Traditionally, Community Health Centers (CHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) have faced an uphill battle when it comes to integrating dental into broader care strategies. With only one required dental UDS measure: sealants for children, many organizations lack the infrastructure or incentives to track more comprehensive oral health metrics.

But the landscape is shifting. Healthy People 2030 includes 15 national oral health objectives, signaling stronger federal attention. More importantly, CHCs including Health Partners of Western Ohio are proving what’s possible when oral health data is put to work. Health Partners embedded dental insights into everything from morning huddles to school-based outreach. Through custom scorecards and smart registry use, they’ve tracked treatment plan completion, cross-service referrals, and preventive care adherence, all while fostering healthy internal competition between sites.

The result? A cultural shift toward accountability and action, with oral health at the table.

Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF): Innovation in Action

One standout example of innovation comes from Health Partners’ use of Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF)—a low-cost treatment that can delay cavity progression, as well as spreading cariogenic bacteria to otherwise healthy teeth. In 2024, Health Partners began training its medical teams to apply SDF during routine visits. This shift wasn’t just about convenience; it was about access.

With long dental waitlists and high no-show rates, SDF provided important treatment, especially for pediatric patients and Medicaid recipients. Through custom DRVS alerts and registry data elements, Health Partners was able to track first and second applications, monitor patient progress, and ensure timely treatment. When Ohio Medicaid began reimbursing for SDF in 2025, Health Partners was ready.

Why Dental Matters More Than Ever 

It’s easy to overlook the long-term impact of a missed dental cleaning—but the downstream effects are significant. Poor oral health can impact everything from school attendance to chronic disease management and emotional well-being, with tooth decay being the most common chronic childhood condition in the U.S.

By leveraging tools like Azara DRVS, care teams can:

• Identify high-risk patients using medical-dental crossover insights via DRVS registries
• Track and close treatment gaps using alerts on the Patient Visit Planning Report (PVP)
• Benchmark site and provider performance
• Align dental quality initiatives with broader value-based care goals

The Bottom Line

Oral health can no longer viewed as a nice-to-have, it’s a critical pillar of whole-person care and belongs squarely within your quality improvement strategy. Yet for too long, oral health care has operated without the data-driven rigor that powers primary care. That’s where Azara DRVS’ comprehensive dental solutions come in.

With core DRVS dental tools and the expanded DRVS Dental Module, Azara offers an in-depth view into your organization’s dental operations, combining medical and dental records to uncover actionable insights across care settings.

Azara’s Dental Module offers:

• More than a dozen dental-specific measures—from annual prophylaxis and oral evaluations to dental recall rates and ED-related utilization.
• Smart PVP alerts and registry data elements that surface care gaps during routine visits, enable targeted outreach, and support integrated workflows.
• Custom scorecards and dashboards that bring clarity to provider performance, dental program trends, and treatment adherence.
• Deeper understanding of oral-systemic health connections, including correlations between periodontitis and chronic conditions like uncontrolled diabetes.

Whether you’re working to improve treatment completion, manage caries risk, track sealant applications, or reduce unnecessary ED visits for dental conditions, DRVS equips teams with the tools to act quickly and effectively.

Learn more about how Health Partners of Western Ohio is transforming population health through data-driven strategies and patient visit planning.

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Ready to bring data-driven innovation to your dental care strategy? Learn how Azara can help.