Bridging Gaps: Medical-Dental Integration for Veterans in Family Medicine Training

Advancing medical-dental integration, with a particular focus and priority on innovative solutions that link behavioral health and oral health for veterans


As Family Physicians, we know you are passionate about Veterans' Health and Oral Health; however, you may face challenges integrating these topics into your training and practice. We invite you to participate and share your voice. We have multiple ways for you to get involved in this project.

Levels of Participation:

  1. Respond to Membership-Wide Surveys: This is quick and easy, and we hope every residency program in the FMEC region will respond! The FMEC will include survey questions related to this project in our newsletters.  Please watch for “Oral Health Care for Veterans Project Survey” questions, like the one below, in FMEC emails and respond promptly to provide valuable insights.
  2. Participate in a Targeted Interview: FMEC is recruiting faculty and program directors to meet one-on-one or join focus groups discussing veterans' health and oral health training in your programs. These short virtual meetings (no more than 30 minutes) will be conducted at your convenience, and they will give you a chance to talk about what you are doing or want to do concerning veterans' healthcare and oral health. Participating programs will receive an incentive. If you’d like to participate in an interview, email Rebecca Bouck at [email protected].
  3. Join the Performance Improvement/Continuing Medical Education (PI/CME) Project: FMEC is seeking 8 to 12 family medicine residency programs or family physician clinics to participate in this pilot project. The project will run for five months, from March to July 2025. Participation will be easy, and you will receive CME and PI credits.

Project Overview

FMEC has launched a project to explore how primary care providers (PCPs) within the family medicine academic system manage oral health care. This initiative, which emphasizes care for veterans due to their increased burden of dental disease along with behavioral health and other needs, is made possible by a generous grant from the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, Inc.

The FMEC will improve how primary care providers (PCPs) in academic family medicine address oral health care for veterans. It will evaluate family medicine residency programs through surveys and interviews to understand current oral health and veteran services, the challenges in teaching about them, and ideas for improvement. Based on these insights, a Performance Improvement initiative will be developed, focusing on training and enhancing collaboration between medical and dental care.

The ultimate goal is to equip PCPs with the necessary knowledge and tools to better meet the oral and behavioral health needs of veterans, with results and educational resources made available to all member programs.

Veterans are an underserved population, and we can help them better access interdisciplinary care.

Veterans are:

  • Impacted by high rates of periodontitis and missing or filled teeth, even when controlling for factors like chronic medical conditions and smoking status
  • 60% more likely than nonveterans to experience tooth decay, impacting daily functioning and productivity
  • more likely than nonveterans to have health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, which are associated with poor oral health and lead to higher out-of-pocket costs
  • in need of innovative solutions that link behavioral health and oral health

Project Advisors and Reviewers

  • Elizabeth Alpert, DDS, MPH, Instructor, Part time | Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
  • Janet F. Hale PhD, RN, FNP, Professor Emeritus, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, Univ of Massachusetts  Medical School
  • Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine and Community Health, Univ of Massachusetts Medical School
  • Robert Smethers, RDH, MSDH, Dental Hygiene Assistant Professor, Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
  • Maya Bass, MD, MA, Program Director, Cooper Family Medicine Residency/Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
  • Britt Gayle, MD, MedStar Health
  • Robert Motley, MD, MHCDS, Vice Chair, Community Medicine and Ellen M. & Dale W. Garber Professor in Family Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University