The dental home: a primary care oral health concept.

BACKGROUND: The pediatrics community has promoted the concept of a medical home to improve families' care utilization. The authors describe the medical home and propose a dental home concept to improve families' access to dental care. DESCRIPTION: The dental home is a locus for preventive oral health supervision and emergency care. It can be a repository for records and the focus for making specialty referrals. When culture and ethnicity are barriers to care, the dental home offers a site adapted to care delivery and is sensitive to family values. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The dental home can provide access to preventive and emergency services for children. Establishment of the home early in the child's life can expose a child to prevention and early intervention before problems occur, reduce anxiety and facilitate referral.