Proven and Promising Best Practices for Health Center Oral Health Programs

Introduction

What Is a Best Practice?

A "best practice" is defined as a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, when applied to a particular condition or circumstance.

A best practice can be a service, program, function or process that a Health Center oral health program leads, administers, partners, facilitates and/or supports through collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

The phrase best practice might imply that there is a single solution to a given situation.  However, this is not the case. While no formula is available that will insure the success of every program, it is possible that approaches that work for some oral health programs can be adapted and tailored to other oral health programs.

Consider the case of a start-up oral health program:  It would be most efficient to order only one shade of composite, but that would hardly be effective.  However, the start up program could ask other existing safety-net oral health programs about best practices that would indicate the correct number and amounts of composite shades to order with the hope that their results will be equally successful and efficient.  If the best practice promoted is from a Health Center serving a geriatric population in Idaho and adopted by a Health Center serving a pediatric population in Alabama, it would probably surprise no one that the same formula would have different results.

NNOHA recognizes that oral health programs have different environments, infrastructure, cultures, availability of resources, local burden of disease and political considerations. Therefore, end-users need to critically assess the best practice information and adapt ideas and strategies to better meet the needs of their unique Health Center service populations.

Goal

The goal of NNOHA’s Best Practices webpage is to share best practices between Health Centers and cultivate innovative strategies and best practices among Health Center oral health programs to improve oral health and reduce disparities.

The following are expected outcomes for the NNOHA Best Practices webpage:

      1. Document successful practices in Health Center oral health programs, implemented through leadership, partnership and/or collaboration.

      2. Share ideas and lessons learned from successful practices of Health Center oral health programs.

      3. Promote communications and cooperation among Health Centers on solutions to improve oral health.

Some of the content for this page has been adapted from the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) Best Practices website: http://www.astdd.org/best-practices/

ASTDD has taken the lead in promoting the development of best practices by state, territorial and community oral health programs to enhance oral health and reduce disparities.