Is Oral Health Essential?
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Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Elizabeth McGough1, Lisa Simon2
1Fourth-year dental student at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract:
Since 1840, when the first dental school in the United States was founded, educational and policy outcomes have reinforced the separation of dentistry from medicine. Originating in serial historical divides, this separation has produced grave health inequity. The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates differences in medical and dental care delivery streams and also suggests how to design a unified health care system that transcends historical precedent.
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