Maine Dental Connection

A statewide initiative to implement locally-adapted versions of the Virtual Dental Home model, a community-integrated oral health care delivery system, in community settings across Maine.

The Maine Dental Connection (MDC) initiative was born of the Virtual Dental Home (VDH) model. The VDH model, as originally developed and implemented by Dr. Paul Glassman in California, sends mobile dental hygiene teams into community settings to provide preventive and early intervention care, as well as full diagnostic services, in connection with a remote dentist via “store-and-forward” teledentistry. Patients are enrolled with the practice in order to receive care coordination for any follow-up care they may need. In childcare and school settings across the country, the VDH model keeps over 80% of patients healthy in the community, creating dental homes that are otherwise unavailable or inaccessible and reserving office space for higher level care. Throughout Maine, a variety of adaptations to this model are active in Head Start centers and schools. With COHN’s statewide coordination, the MDC functions to provide support and opportunities to implementing partners to maintain alignment with initiative goals:

• Bring oral health care into community settings where children already spend their days.
• Employ the best scientific practices to keep patients healthy in the community.
• Encourage patients’ adoption of mouth healthy habits using behavior-change science.
• Build coordinated, collaborative oral health teams, using tools such as teledentistry, to connect patients with the full continuum of care.

Reach out to COHN’s Maine Dental Connection coordinator, Emilie Knight (emilie@mainecohn.org) with questions and ideas.