What does research tell us about the future of dental hygiene?

Working within a state-level oral health program, I am continually reviewing data and conducting surveillance and research projects to identify and better understand oral health disparities, workforce issues, oral disease burden, and access and utilization trends at the state and local levels. Though some oral health improvements have been made nationally, dental caries remains the most common chronic pediatric disease, almost half of all adults over age 30 have some form of periodontal disease,2 and more than 50,000 new cases of oral cavity or oropharyngeal cancer will be diagnosed in 2018, with an increasing number of cases linked to human papillomavirus infections.3 Additionally, oral health disparities persist for certain groups based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, age, and geographic location. Katy Battani, RDH, MS is the project manager of the perinatal and infant oral health quality improvement project for the Maryland Department of Health, Office of Oral Health and a member of the Maryland Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.