We know that preventive dental care – or the comprehensive approach we call “Preventistry” – is a strong means to maintaining overall health. With proper guidance and support, providers and patients can partner together as designers of health and, with collaboration from insurers and communities, address barriers such as nutrition and delayed treatment. The benefits of this model go beyond the individual to populations and even the entire health care system.

The adoption of the Preventistry approach – explained here in more detail – is at the core of a true systems-based transformation. It’s based on the idea that, for people to achieve lasting oral health, we at DentaQuest must provide support focused on a variety of factors that influence health. Importantly, those factors include elements that broadly impact our oral health, such as government policies, how providers are paid, what care is available, and so much more.

Putting prevention first for those systems requires complex and often slow change. Benefit plans and oral health education are pieces of the puzzle, but there are larger pieces in play. To further emphasize the prevention focus, DentaQuest may in some markets incentivize providers through performance goals and encouraging added care management for the patients they serve. These approaches support increased value in care and, for the provider, reward can be found from measures that demonstrate positive outcomes and patient satisfaction.

DentaQuest is dedicated to helping providers embrace and find success in value-based care. Efforts such as our technical assistance programs, free online curricula, and score card performance modeling encourage practices to think differently about what success looks like moving forward.

Value over volume is the future for oral health – just as it is for medical care. These steps take us closer to Preventistry, enabling greater adoption of value-based benefits overall, as well as closing the gap between oral health and medical care transformations.