Position of The American Dietetic Association: Oral health and nutrition

Medical nutrition therapy can reduce the risk of oral infections diseases and improve the outcome of treatment of patients with oral manifestations of acute, chronic, and terminal diseases. Clinical trials to identify interactions between oral health and nutrition/diet may support findings of animal and laboratory research and provide a foundation for more effective health promotion and disease prevention and for successful treatment modalities. Given the current climate of health care delivery, which stresses collaborative efforts of health care providers, qualified dietetics and dental professionals are challenged to pursue opportunities to create a health care paradigm that will mesh optimum oral and nutritional health status. Figure 3 identifies activities for future action. To prepare practitioners with the skills and knowledge that will lead to a successful practice that exemplifies this paradigm, dietetics and dental educators must assume responsibility for embedding oral health topics and clinical/community experiences in education. Figure 4 provides a foundation for future initiatives in this area. Changes in the epidemiology of oral disease, along with population shifts and new technology, have major implications for the future of dentistry and dietetics. More research examining the links between nutrition and oral health and disease is needed (54). Collaborative endeavors between dietetics and dentistry in research, education, and delineation of health provider practice roles are needed to ensure comprehensive health care to persons with oral infectious disease and/or oral manifestations of systemic diseases. For health professionals, the burden of responsibility to provide comprehensive health care is rapidly increasing (2,3,55). Dental practitioners of the future will be called on to expand their role not just to treat oral disease, but to share with other health professionals the responsibility for attaining and maintaining a patient's total health. Similarly, dietitians of the future will not only need to treat a specific diagnosis with medical nutrition therapy but will need to incorporate a patient's total health needs into the treatment approaches. Although members of each profession must maintain their respective roles, they must also be able to function as partners in providing baseline comprehensive health services.