Biennial PA Oral Health Summit
2023 PA Oral Health Summit
The 2023 PA Oral Health Summit was held November 15-17 at the Best Western Premier Hotel and Conference Center in Harrisburg, PA. The theme of the event was "Paving the Road to Equity."
There were nearly 140 individuals in attendance. New this year, PCOH offered a poverty simulation to kick off the three-day event.
Interested in learning more about the topics covered at the event? You can watch all of the presentations by clicking the titles below:
- "Greetings from the Pennsylvania Department of Health" with Deputy Secretary Cindy Findley
- "Pennsylvania Department of Health Office of Health Equity" with Tensae Getz
- "Greetings from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services" with Secretary Valerie Arkoosh
- "Keynote Address: Reflections in Equity" with Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew
- "Dental Pain in the ER - The Unavoidable Avoidable" with Micah Gursky
- "Insights from the Basic Screening Survey" with Kelly Braun
- "Trauma, What is It, How to Recognize It, How to Practice Trauma-Informed Care: Learned Lessons" with Dr. Olivia Sheridan
- "Successes, Challenges, and Impact: The Pennsylvania Safety Net" moderated by Kristen Rapp
- "Greetings from the Pennsylvania Department of Health" with Dr. Jonise McDaniel
- "Greetings from the Department of Human Services" with Dr. Sean Shamloo
- "Greetings from the Department of Human Services" with Dr. David Kelley
- "Making the Invisible, Visible in Oral Health" with Amanda Taylor Gehman
- "Shared Solutions: Breaking Down the Rural-Urban Divide in Accessing Oral Health Care" moderated by Dr. Sean Boynes
- "Standing in the Gap: Community Health Workers" with Jamie Santana
- "An Assessment of Pennsylvania School-Based Oral Health Programs" with Jacqueline Pugliese
- "Addressing Workforce Challenges Through Dental Education: From Pipeline to Practice" moderated by Dr. Joseph Greenberg
Thank you to our presenters for sharing your expertise and making this event a success!
Thank you to our 2023 summit sponsors!
Learn more about the event sponsors by clicking on the names below:
- Highmark Foundation & United Concordia Dental
- UPMC Health Plan
- Smiles 4 Keeps, an Abra Health Company
- Eastcentral Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center
- University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
- Special Smiles
- Pennsylvania Rural Health Association
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Oral Health Program
- Pennsylvania Department of Health, Project Firstline
- Feinberg Shopp Associates
- Avesis, a Guardian Company
- SKYGEN
- University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine
- Pennsylvania Department of Health
- Verber Dental Group
- Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
- DentaQuest
- Lisa Schildhorn
2021 PA Oral Health Summit
Interested in learning more about the topics covered at the event? You can watch some of the presentations by clicking the titles below:
- Day 1 Keynote Address with Dr. Denise Johnson
- State of the State with Dr. Jonise McDaniel
- Day 2 Keynote Address with Rear Admiral Timothy Ricks
- Our Heroes and Oral Health with Barb Reiprich
- Community Water Fluoridation in Pennsylvania with Merrilynn Marsh
- An Integrated Approach to Oral Healthcare with Mindy Diggan
- Managed Care Organizations and Third-Party Administrators: How a Dental Program Works with Dr. Larry Paul
- Addressing Health Equity and Barriers to Care: Educating Future Dental Professionals to Optimally Treat Patients Who Have Special Healthcare Needs with Dr. Mark Wolff
- Tobacco in 2021 with Dr. Kar-Hai Chu
- How a Bill Really Becomes a Law with Ted Mowatt
- Responding to the Healthcare Needs of the Community: Developing an Oral Health Curriculum with Dr. Stephanie Gill
- Oral Health Access and Workforce Planning in Pennsylvania with Kelly Braun
The 2021 PA Oral Health Summit was held on November 11-12, 2021 at the Best Western Premier Hotel and Conference Center in Harrisburg, PA.
There were nearly 100 individuals in attendance for this two-day event, filled with educational presentations, small group discussion, networking opportunities and more.
This year’s agenda featured a lineup of two keynote addresses, a state of the state report, and twelve 15-minute presentations followed by small group discussions.
Presentations covered a range of topics including:
- The PA Oral Health Plan 2020-2030
- The status of oral health in PA
- Oral health care for veterans
- Community water fluoridation in PA
- Integrating behavioral health into an oral health setting
- The roles of managed care organizations and third-party administrators
- Trauma-informed care in dentistry
- Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) related oropharyngeal cancer
- Treating patients with special health care needs
- Tobacco in 2021
- Current national issues in oral health
- Oral health advocacy and lobbying
- Developing oral health curriculum for medical students
- Oral health's impact on dentistry
- Dental workforce issues and planning
Thank you to all those organizations who were able to financially support our 2021 Summit.
Thank you to our 2021 pa oral health summit sponsors!
Support from the Pennsylvania Department of Health is through the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by CDC, HHS or the U.S. Government.
Learn more about the event sponsors by clicking on the names below:
- Highmark Foundation & United Concordia
- UPMC Health Plan
- Gateway Health Plan
- DentaQuest Insurance
- SKYGEN
- United Healthcare
- Adagio Health
- Special Smiles
- Pediatric Dental Associates
- Children's Dental Management
- CareQuest Institute for Oral Health
- Pennsylvania Department of Health
- AmeriHealth Caritas
- Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
2018 PA Oral Health Summit
The 2018 PA Oral Health Summit was held on November 29-30, 2018 at the Best Western Premier Hotel and Conference Center in Harrisburg, PA.
More than 120 individuals were in attendance for this collaborative two-day event, filled with networking opportunities and insights.
Thank you to all those organizations who were able to financially support our 2018 Summit.
This two-day summit has accelerated our efforts by bringing together leaders from across Pennsylvania to reconnect, discover intersections, and further the oral health movement through innovative collaboration. This year’s format for the two-day event was highly participative and drew strongly on the experiences and wisdom of the people in the room.
Together, we can find ways to continue to impact:
- Access – Pennsylvania is a diverse state by population and geography. Sufficient access to oral health care is a right of the people that we have struggled to meet in the past.
- Workforce – With new scalable prototypes arising from our 2016 Workforce Innovation Summit, PA is primed to fully utilize all its oral health workforce to meet population needs. We will continue to dive deeper into new and renewed models to identify solutions and strengthen the oral health safety net for all.
- Infrastructure – With the launch of the 2017-2020 PA Oral Health Plan since our last convening, PA infrastructure is supporting the oral health movement at all levels. Our work together at this summit aligns with and elevates the PA Oral Health Plan.
More than 120 decision-makers and influencers from across Pennsylvania were present, including:
- Health Professionals
- Health Advocates
- Policymakers
- Payers
- Human Service Organizations
- Educators
- Community Health Foundations
- Industries Dedicated to Oral Health
Thank you to all those organizations who were able to financially support our 2018 Summit.