Girish J Shah.
Medically compromised patients increasing access to oral health care in the general dental office practice.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;14(4):219-24.

Deficiencies in the medical knowledge base of the family dental practitioner result in limited ability to provide outpatient dental care to medically compromised patients. This becomes a Public Health issue in that these patients must seek care in specialty (oral medicine or oral surgical) settings. GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS: Modification of the pre-doctoral curriculum and post-doctoral education programs to educate family dental practitioners so that they may comfortably and adequately offer increased access to care for medically compromised patients. In today`s world of modern medicine, there has been an increase in the scope of patient care for many illnesses. Additionally, there has also been an increase in human life span, resulting in a growing population of older patients with multiple medical problems. Modern medicine and insurance factors have led to an enlarging outpatient population of individuals in a various states of medical compromise. There is thus an increased need to preserve the human dentition, both for its functional and psychological contributions to human existence. As an added issue, dental insurance programs do not offer additional dental benefits to the dental clinician, who manages medically compromised patients, despite their special needs in both the management and treatment realms. This paper will review: 1. Oral health aspects of medically compromised patients. 2. The increasing population of aged individuals and their dental needs. 3. Educational aspects and practitioner knowledge as relates to understanding the medical and dental implications when managing medically compromised patients. 4. Proposals to increase the knowledge level of the family dental practitioner in order to serve the public need.

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