Integrating Oral Health Assessment into Your Patient-intake Process
Questions to Ask, Signs and Symptoms to Look For
Do you ask new patients about their oral health during intake? Do you physically examine their mouth, teeth, tongue, and gums?
For Dr. Jocelyn Strand, Senior Director of Clinical Education and Research for Biocidin Botanicals, initial assessment of oral health was a gap in the clinical practice she ran for almost ten years.
“In a typical review of systems and in medical school, we don’t really learn to ask questions about oral health,” she said. “I didn’t ask my patients questions related to oral health, nor did I do a physical exam of any kind related to it.”
Working with Biocidin Botanicals, a pioneer in microbiome health, Dr. Strand has seen the growing scientific evidence that shows the link between the oral microbiome and systemic health.
“If I had known then what I know now,” Dr. Strand said, “I would have modified my intake of patients to include a thorough interview about their oral health as well as a physical assessment.”
Dr. Ariana Ebrahimian, a functional dentist and a member of the Biocidin Botanicals Scientific Advisory Board, points out, “When you think about it, unless you’re rubbing something on your skin or breathing something in through your nose, pretty much everything you’re taking into your body is passing through your mouth.”
Now that science has proven the bidirectional connection between the oral and gut microbiomes, Dr. Ebrahimian notes, “What’s happening in the mouth is absolutely influencing what’s happening downstream, and now we know vice versa as well.”
And yet, most Review of Systems or SOAP note templates either do not include oral health questions or address them only with a brief Ear/Nose/Throat assessment.
In this video interview, Dr. Strand and Dr. Ebrahimian offer tips about what to look for in a physical exam of a new patient's oral cavity.
A checklist of questions is also provided to print and use or to copy and paste into a Review of Systems or SOAP note template.