The Dental Navigator

OUR SERVICES

Emergency services we provide:

• Toothache Relief: Immediate assessment and treatment of severe toothaches to alleviate pain and identify the underlying cause.
• Emergency Extractions: Prompt removal of severely damaged or decayed teeth causing acute pain or infection.
• Repair of Chipped or Broken Teeth: Restorative procedures to repair chips, cracks, or fractures in teeth to prevent further damage and restore functionality.
• Dental Abscess Management: Drainage and treatment of dental abscesses to relieve pain and prevent the spread of infection.
• Temporary Crown or Filling Placement: Provision of temporary crowns or fillings to protect damaged teeth until permanent restoration can be completed.
• Treatment for Soft Tissue Injuries: Management of injuries to the gums, lips, cheeks, or tongue, including suturing if necessary, to promote healing and prevent complications.
• Dental Prosthesis Repair: Emergency repairs for damaged dental prosthetics such as bridges, crowns, or dentures to restore function and aesthetics.
• Prescription of Antibiotics: Provision of antibiotics when necessary to manage discomfort or infection.

Social Services:

Our Social Work team can help you navigate additional services not limited to dental care.

• Supportive services for applying for dental insurance
• Support with transportation needs
• Community Resources
• Food pantries
• Shelters
• Addiction and Recovery Services
• Health care providers
• Mental health care

Comprehensive Services

Once your urgent dental concern is resolved. You will work with your Dental Navigator Team Member on listing your oral health goals and together developing a plan for comprehensive preventive dental care.

• Close follow-up over time to ensure a long-lasting healthy smile

For those that have opted into the research portion, your DN student will follow up with your care over the next year. You will be scheduled for necessary comprehensive treatments with your Dental Navigator Dental Student to address all of your oral needs.

FOR PATIENTS

PREPARING FOR YOUR VISIT

Once the referral has been placed, a Dental Navigator Team member will call you and will ask you a series of questions to determine your eligibility and availability.
Be prepared to provide the following information:

• Date of birth
• Address
• Date and location of care at emergency or urgent care services
• Transportation Needs
• Interpretation Needs
• Dates and times you are available to be seen

Pre Appointment

Prior to your appointment please do the following:

• Complete all the patient forms here.
• If you can please send all x-rays in the last 2 years to [email protected]
• Please continue to communicate with your Dental Navigator Team Member directly
• If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment please let your team member know directly.

What to bring to your appointment

• Valid ID or and license
• Dental insurance information or card
  
• Legal Guardianship forms or completed temporary delegation forms
• List of all current medication

Day of Appointment Expectations

• Please arrive 20 minutes prior to your appointment for parking and to complete any additional paperwork
• Please do not bring children, as we do not have childcare available
  
• Only you will be allowed in the clinic, all others must wait in the waiting area unless previously discussed and approved by the program manager.
• Parking at the SOD is $3.00.

MAKE A REFERRAL

Only participating Emergency Department, Urgent Care Provider, or Referral Services may make a direct referral to our program. The provider or providers staff must make the referral, patients can not call in to schedule an appointment.

In order for your patient to qualify for this program they must meet the following criteria:

• Have an urgent dental need in which they sought care at an emergency department or urgent care
• 18 years of age and over
• Do not have a primary dental care provider
• Medicaid insured or no insurance

If you believe your patient qualifies for our program, please use our Dental Navigator Referral Form. Someone from our team will reach out to them immediately.

APPOINTMENTS

• Appointments are available at the Dental School on Thursday mornings 8:00AM to 11:30AM. Same day or prescheduled are available. These appointments will be scheduled by your Dental Navigator Team Member after the referral form has been submitted.
• Additionally, more appointment times might be available in the Dental Student Clinics as appointed by your Dental Navigator Team Member. Your Team member will call you to schedule during these times.

ABOUT US

We are an inter-professional team of Faculty, students and staff at U-M School of Dentistry and the School of Social Work working together to try to solve access to oral care issues for adults in Southeast Michigan. It is estimated that about one percent of daily emergency department visits end with a dental diagnosis, yet 90% of those diagnoses do not result in actual dental treatment but with a prescription for medication to treat the symptoms not the actual underlying oral health problem. This creates a significant economic burden for hospitals and emergency departments as well as for the longevity of the patients oral health as preventive measures to prevent future problems are not addressed.

We know that the delivery of and access to oral health care in America has not changed in the adult population since the 2000 Surgeon General's Report on the Oral Health of America. And that the prevalence of dental diseases, such as dental caries and periodontal disease, has neither drastically improved nor changed; access to oral health care for many Americans is still problematic.

One strategy to improve the oral health of Americans is to increase the integration of oral and medical care delivery. To achieve this, intentional collaborative care mechanisms between dental and medical practitioners are needed. Therefore, in March of 2020 Martha McComas and Dr. Elizabeth Hatfield identified the need for an integrative interdisciplinary solution to address the gaps that currently exist including the reliance on emergency services for routine dental needs.

To do this, they created and implemented a patient navigation system in which they named The Dental Navigator. The dental navigator is a team of dental, dental hygiene, and social work faculty, staff, that exists not only to assess patient needs, but to become the “key contact for the patient, who helps facilitate other necessary social services such as help acquiring federal, state, or private dental insurance, and interprofessional medical care communication and coordination outside of dentistry.

The Dental Navigator Program launched in November of 2022 and includes a team of Dental students, dental faculty, dental hygiene and social work.

Our teams focuses on prioritizing the treatment of the patients' urgent dental needs to expediently address the patients' pain status, often, entailing a prompt appointment in oral surgery and/or endodontics. The teams also works with the patient in creating oral health goals, giving tailored oral health education and coordinates with the school social worker to implement wrap around care strategies.

Finally, the teams facilitate both dental and interdisciplinary care coordination for the patient in order to establish prevention based behaviors. Patient outcomes are monitored through the collection of pre, mid, and post-surveys.

Our program is supported by the Delta Dental Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable organization established in 1980, which serves as the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina. The DDF is dedicated to developing and enhancing partnerships and programs to improve oral and overall health and health equity. For more information, visit www.deltadental.foundation.

CONTACT INFORMATION