The Goals of the MORE Care Pilot

The MORE Care Ohio pilot kicked off in November 2022 as a collaboration between CareQuest Institute and Oral Health Ohio, a coalition of statewide partners who educate and advocate to improve the state’s oral and overall health. MORE Care Ohio provides four participating care teams — each made up of one dental practice and one medical practice — with support in integrating oral health into primary care and coordinating referrals.

“MORE Care looks at the whole picture and doesn’t just break it up into slices,” Ngo says. “So now both the dental and the primary care providers approach the diagnosis and treatment of the patients together — a more integrated approach.”

A major reason CareQuest Institute was drawn to incorporating MORE Care in Ohio was because early childhood caries is the most common, preventable infectious disease among children in the US, and in Ohio, one out of every four children have not had an annual dental visit.