Opportunities for Age-Specific Interprofessional Collaboration Between Physicians and Dentists in Pediatric Patients
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Updated: Dec 18, 2025
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Published on: February 2, 2020
David Okuji1, Donna Kritz-Silverstein2, Hoa Pham3
1Dr. Okuji is a senior associate director, Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry, NYU Langone Health, New York, N.Y., USA;,
Insights
Pediatric patients visit physicians more than dentists at younger ages. Older children (9+) visit dentists more, presenting opportunities for dentists to address systemic health and physicians to focus on oral health in younger children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Healthcare
- Interprofessional Practice
- Public Health
Background:
- Pediatric healthcare often involves separate visits to physicians and dentists.
- Understanding trends in these visits is crucial for developing integrated care models.
- National data can reveal patterns in healthcare utilization among children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze national data on pediatric visits to dentists and physicians.
- To identify age-related trends in dental versus medical healthcare utilization.
- To inform future interprofessional healthcare practices for children.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the National Survey of Children's Health (2011-2012).
- Included 95,677 children aged 0-17 years.
- Compared the frequency of dentist and physician visits by age.
Main Results:
- Physician visits were more frequent than dentist visits for younger children.
- Children aged nine years and older had more frequent dentist visits than physician visits.
- These trends were consistent across different demographic groups, including gender and language.
Conclusions:
- Physicians can play a key role in promoting oral health in young children through evaluations and referrals.
- Dentists can address systemic health issues in older children (9+), including counseling on nutrition, vaccinations, and screening for conditions like diabetes and sleep apnea.
- Interprofessional collaboration can optimize pediatric healthcare delivery.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine national data for trends in pediatric patient visits to dentists and physicians that may inform future interprofessional practice. Data for 95,677 children, aged zero to 17 years, captured between 2011 and 2012 from the National Survey of Children's Health were examined to compare the number of visits made to dentists and physicians at each year of age. The average age was 8.9±5.2 (standard deviation) years; 28.6 percent were receiving Medicaid. Comparisons showed that, while physician visits were more common than dentist visits at younger ages, children aged nine years and older had more dentist visits than physician visits per year (P<0.001). Stratified analyses showed similar patterns in the frequency of physician and dentist visits within boys (P<0.001), girls (P<0.001), English speakers (P<0.001), and non-English speakers (P<0.001). Physicians have an opportunity to address oral health in younger children, and dentists have an opportunity to address systemic health for older children. For five-year-olds and younger, physicians should incorporate oral health evaluations and dentist-referrals. For nine-year-olds and older, dentists should provide counseling on healthy weight, nutrition, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination; monitoring for diabetes and asthma; and screening for smoking, vaping, and sleep apnea.
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