Winter 2017-18

13 nmdental.org visits, overhead is reduced along with the cost of providing care. Through community outreach and education, patients are more likely to seek care they need and become attached to a dental home, increasing demand, while eventually decreasing the dental disease burden within the community. The value of case management has already been realized in medicine and is an available benefit with most health plans. As the dental benefits landscape evolves and the health benefits of maintaining oral health are more fully recognized, coverages for these services will become more common. Codes for case management have already become a part of CDT. The future of dentistry, and really all of health care, lies not in providing more surgical services, but in prevention, strategic therapies and managing the next generation of genomics- developed treatments. This is one reason that mid-level models like dental therapists are poorly adapted to both current and future needs and the CDHC is so well-suited. As health care, including dentistry, takes on both an individualistic and community-based perspective, the importance of case management will only become greater. A dental team that begins to incorporate methods to accommodate these changes now will thrive in the future environment of integrated healthcare. The Community Dental Health Coordinator is not going to overcome all the barriers to care that face us, but it is a well- engineered addition to our teams in the rapidly changing practice landscape. Dentistry has been particularly adept at navigating changes in health care delivery. The CDHC gives us another valuable resource in that effort. Moneyball allowed a team with limited finances to be successful. We face the same need to make the most out of our limited resources. Success will come by adaptation and careful design. The Community Dental Health Coordinator is an exceptional prospect. State of the Workforce | continued 2018 State of the Workforce FAST FACTS 1081 1131 1171 TOTAL NUMBER OF DENTISTS 2015 2016 2017 +90 NM HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE REPORT 2015, 2016, 2017 continued on page 15 