Dental Students Learn to Medically Assess Patients
By Elyse Bloom
“We tell our DDS students that they are primary healthcare providers, but that doesn’t mean very much unless we equip them with the knowledge, skills, and experience to act competently and confidently in that capacity,” says Andrew B. Schenkel, clinical assistant professor of cariology and comprehensive care at the College of Dentistry. “Now, with the introduction of a formal, collaborative teaching program uniting dentistry and nursing, we are on our way to closing that gap.”
Schenkel is overseeing the new program in collaboration with Madeleine Lloyd, director of the NYU College of Nursing Nurse Practitioner (NP) Faculty Practice. At the clinic, Lloyd helps students become more focused on the oral-systemic link as a two-way street, on how systemic issues can affect the timely delivery of dental care, and on the opportunity and the obligation they have to intervene in their patient’s medical care to ensure that problems are addressed before they worsen. Students are trained to identify issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, irregular heartbeat, atrial fibrillation, potential prescription medication interactions, and other conditions that require medical clearance before dental treatment can proceed.
When such issues arise, rather than having to find oral medicine faculty to refer the patient outside of the College of Dentistry to get medical clearance, as they would have done in the past, students can now consult immediately with Lloyd, who can do an instant consultation to help clarify medical concerns and questions. With innovations such as instant read technology, Lloyd can determine on the spot if someone has a high risk of bleeding, and can select from a range of therapies so that the patient can quickly be cleared for treatment, thus eliminating a waiting period.
In other cases, when a patient has serious medical needs such as untreated diabetes or high blood pressure that must be addressed prior to treatment, especially periodontal treatment, the patient is referred to the NYU College of Dentistry’s onsite NP Faculty Practice, where they can get the treatment they need.
