Innovations in oral health: A toolkit for interprofessional education

The integration of oral health competencies into non-dental health professions curricula can serve as an effective driver for interprofessional education (IPE). The purpose of this report is to describe a replicable oral-health-driven IPE model and corresponding online toolkit, both of which were developed as part of the Innovations in Oral Health (IOH): Technology, Instruction, Practice, and Service programme at Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, USA. Tooth decay is a largely preventable disease that is connected to overall health and wellness, and it affects the majority of adults and a fifth of children in the United States. To prepare all health professionals to address this problem, the IOH model couples programming from the online resource Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum with experiential learning opportunities designed for undergraduate and graduate students that include simulation-learning (technology), hands-on workshops and didactic sessions (instruction), and opportunities for both cooperative education (practice) and community-based learning (service). The IOH Toolkit provides the means for others to replicate portions of the IOH model or to establish a large-scale IPE initiative that will support the creation of an interprofessional workforce-one equipped with oral health competencies and ready for collaborative practice.