Innovations to improve oral health care access

Improving access to oral health care requires an understanding of the social, cultural, political, financial, and manpower factors that influence access. Armed with this knowledge, individuals and organizations desiring to improve access can innovate to change public policy, garner resources, create clinical programs, and expand public health interventions as demonstrated by the examples in this article. This article highlights past and contemporary innovations that have improved access, or have the potential to improve access to oral health care. These innovations are grouped into six categories: the dental profession, public health, community-based care delivery, oral health care funding, dental education, and evidence-based dentistry.