A self-supporting hospital dental service

This article focuses on the business aspects of dentistry in a hospital. However, there is another aspect of hospital dentistry—the relationship of dentistry to medicine in a hospital and the tertiary dental services that can be developed with a strong dental program. A strong dental service has benefits for a hospital in addition to its service to an indigent dental community and the teaching of general practice dental residents. A strong dental service will attract oral surgeons and potentially an oral surgery residency program. Oral surgeons can fill beds, use the operating room, and interact with other medical disciplines. Having oral surgery residents will attract the more difficult oral surgery patients (oral carcinoma or maxillofacial surgery), and these residents will be available for 24-hour coverage, thereby encouraging major cases to be admitted to the hospital. Oral surgeons will also refer dental emergencies to the emergency room, which will also be a potential source of admissions. The relationship of medicine and dentistry can also be found in the following programs: cleft palate teams, head and neck surgery, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problems, maxillofacial surgery, and mandibular fractures. These programs will encourage physicians to admit patients with these health care needs to the hospital as the full range of services are available. There are many reasons for a hospital to evaluate all possible alternatives for survival of hospital ambulatory dentistry or to evaluate the start of a program.