What do family doctors say about their cooperation with dentists and the other way around.

What is it about?

It is about the (old) problem that doctors and dentists are divided by an invisible wall when it comes to patient care. Sometimes it seems like the mouth and teeth do not belong to the rest of the human body. Dentists take care for it - all the rest is done by ("real") doctors. This aspect derives from socialisation at the universities/ studies and learning from role models (e.g. professors) which carried such a thinking of "two worlds" over time. Due to evidence of interactions between oral health and systemic health such a behavior is neither professional nor positive for every individual patient. A study revealed topics what barriers and chances are seen by the two groups of professionals and gives insights to what experiences were made and which exspectations are there.

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Why is it important?

Many treatments for chronic or systemic diseases will have an effect to the mouth. This may result in discomfort, loss of teeth, ability to chew or even pain. Eventhough diseases of the mouth may have an influence on other parts of the body - such as heart or brain or even treatments of teeth or gums may affect the health of the body. Thats why a cooperation of both is mandatory on a regular basis. Up to now there are no evaluations about such cooperations and a set of interviews uncovers what both professions are thinking about it. This helps further research to priorize the next steps and to identify topics which are easy to handle and what might be somehow difficult.