VIEWPOINT: Comprehensive and Urgent Care Dentistry as a New Specialty

Recently, the doors opened with regard to the American Dental Association recognizing 3 new dental specialties: dental anesthesia, oral medicine, and orofacial pain. It is our opinion that such emerging dental specialties as laser dentistry, implant dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, and comprehensive and urgent care dentistry will also eventually become recognized dental specialties.^1-4

Medical and dental specialty status provides representation to patients that physicians and dentists who are specialists have successfully completed clinical residency programs that have been approved and evaluated by clinical specialty residency evaluation boards and/or commissions. Furthermore, the successful completion of specialty diplomate’s examinations demonstrates that boarded specialists have achieved competency within acceptable standards. All medical and most specialty dental boards also require diplomate’s examination recertification at specific time units to advocate for continuing education upkeep.^5-9

In 1979, the Certifying Board of General Dentistry was incorporated. In 1984, the name was changed to the American Board of General Dentistry (ABGD), which remains the certification standard for general dentists. Candidates for this board must meet specified qualifications to ensure confidence in a level of competency. Furthermore, ABGD diplomates are required to recertify every 5 years.^10-12

There are, at present, issues supporting ADA dental specialty recognition for comprehensive and urgent care dentistry. These issues include the limited training available at many dental education institutions regarding undergraduate dental education (dental schools), postdoctoral general dentistry and advanced general dentistry residency programs, and patient need and demand.^13-16

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatized the importance of urgent dental care education for general dentists. The relatively recent pandemic, at its peak, resulted in the worldwide suspension of most dental services for at least several months. Dentists were not allowed to see dental patients for routine dental treatment in many countries, states, and provinces due to transmissibility, morbidity, and mortality concerns.^17-22

Ball et al¹⁹ reported that the dental profession in the United Kingdom needed to make significant changes with respect to urgent dental care delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chamorro-Petronacci et al²¹ studied the economic impact of urgent care dental surgery and highlighted the importance of this service to the public. Crivello et al²² reported on the successful dental school clinical education model experience concerning the third- and fourth-year dental students at an internal urgent care center in the spring of 2020. The center provided emergency dental care in partnership with a community health center and a hospital emergency department for underserved dental patients. 

In conclusion, dental specialty status provides healthcare consumers with knowledge of competency regarding particular spheres of dental practice. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an example of the need for specialty recognition of comprehensive and urgent care dentistry.

REFERENCES 

1. Brown RS, Desai BS, Gamble RF. Urgent Care, Dentistry and the Future. Dent Today. 2020;39(6):3.
2. Stoopler ET, Murdoch-Kinch CA. American Dental Association specialty recognition of oral medicine: Implications for the dental profession. J Am Dent Assoc. 2020;151(7):472–3. doi:10.1016/j.adaj.2020.05.001
3. Specialty Recognition for Dental Anesthesiology. Anesth Prog. 2019;66(2):59-60. doi:10.2344/anpr-66-02-10
4. Solanta K. American Board of Orofacial Pain recognized as national certifying board for orofacial pain. ADA News. 2022. Available at: https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2022/march/american-board-of-orofacial-pain-recognized-as-national-certifying-board-for-orofacial-pain/
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9. Perciaccante VJ, Cunningham LL Jr. Certification by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: Residency to Retirement. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am. 2022;34(4):521–8. doi:10.1016/j.coms.2022.03.011
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13. Rasubala L, Ren Y. The need for competency-based training in dental urgent care. Quintessence Int. 2015;46(6):455–6. doi:10.3290/j.qi.a34112
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17. Witton R, Plessas A, Wheat H, et al. The future of dentistry post-COVID-19: perspectives from Urgent Dental Care centre staff in England. Br Dent J. 2021 Sep 20:1-5. doi:10.1038/s41415-021-3405-1
18. Ostrc T, Pavlović K, Fidler A. Urgent dental care on a national level during the COVID-19 epidemic. Clin Exp Dent Res. 2021;7(3):271–8. doi:10.1002/cre2.383
19. Ball M, Akintola D, Harrington Z, et al. Emergency dental care triage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Br Dent J. 2021 Sep 6:1–5. doi:10.1038/s41415-021-3379-z
20. Kshirsagar MM, Dodamani AS, Deokar RN, et al. Impact of COVID-19 on Dentistry. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent. 2021;14(5):711–4. doi:10.5005/jp-journals-10005-2025
21. Chamorro-Petronacci C, Martin Carreras-Presas C, Sanz-Marchena A, et al. Assessment of the Economic and Health-Care Impact of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) on Public and Private Dental Surgeries in Spain: A Pilot Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(14):5139. doi:10.3390/ijerph17145139
22. Crivello BJ, Whitworth BC, Pazdernik VK, et al. Community partnerships within a novel dental school urgent care center: Student perceptions. J Dent Educ. 2021;85(8):1396-1403. doi:10.1002/jdd.12592

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Sonnier is an assistant professor at Howard Universitiy College of Dentistry (HUCD) in the Department of Comprehensive Care, Division of Restorative Dentistry. She can be reached at jezelle.sonnier@howard.edu.

Dr. Brown is a professor emeritus at HUCD in the department of Comprehensive Dentistry.  He can be reached at rbrown@howard.edu.

Dr. Desai received his DMD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in Philadelphia and his PhD from the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore. He can be reached via email at drbhavikd@gmail.com.

Dr. Gamble is the advanced education in general dentistry program director at HUCD. He can be reached via email at robert.gamble@howard.edu.

Disclosure: The authors report no disclosures. 

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: iQoncept/Shutterstock.com.