Oral Health

CCHN supports oral health efforts at Colorado Community Health Centers (CHCs) and convenes the Colorado Dental Health Network (CDHN), a peer network of CHC dental leadership. CHCs’ current areas of focus for oral health include:

  • Enhancing data-driven quality improvement in dental programs
  • Incorporating oral health providers into primary care teams and into community settings to increase access to care
  • Ensuring that children, pregnant women, and patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension receive needed oral health services
  • Strengthening referral systems between dental and medical providers
  • Integrating medical, dental, and behavioral health services to enhance patient-centered primary care.


CCHN provides coaching and technical assistance to CHCs to facilitate integration of oral health into the care delivery system, increase preventive oral health interventions, increase cultural competency of staff and providers, enhance the quality improvement capacity of CHC dental programs, and encourage shared learning among CHCs.

 
CCHN also participates in the National Oral Health Innovation and Integration Network (NOHIIN), a learning collaborative of more than 30 primary care associations (PCAs) seeking to be champions of oral health as an essential component of good overall health.

CCHN’s oral health work is supported by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, and the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement.

Please contact Holly Kingsbury, holly@cchn.org, for additional information.