A: The Philips CARE (Customized Assessment and Risk Evaluator) tool was launched at the Yankee Dental Meeting in January of this year (2014).   I am unsure about how many people have accessed the tool, but I can tell you that at the educational institution where I teach, West Coast University, Anaheim, CA, dental hygiene students use this tool on all new patients as part of their patient assessment.  We have found it to be incredibly helpful in conducting patient assessments and determining oral disease risk for the three disease-related conditions we typically see—dental caries, periodontal diseases, and oral pathology.

 

Q: Who was behind the development of the tool? How were criteria determined for diagnosis of risk and recommendations for treatment?

A: Philips has always been committed to innovation in patient care as well as helping clinicians provide better oral health care for their patients.  This tool was created by industry experts using evidence-based best practices. I was honored to facilitate the development of this tool and worked closely with our cariology expert, Dr. Doug Young, our periodontal expert, Dr. Gregg Oxford, and our oral pathology expert, Dr. Ken Tilashalski.  This tool was based on the most current published literature available at the time.

 

Q: Who is the primary user of the tool? Doctors, hygienists? 

A: Risk assessment is determined separately from the diagnosis. This is important to understand because it does then allow other dental professionals, other than the dentist, to conduct the risk assessment. In many offices, the dental hygienist or dental assistant completes the risk assessment using the information from the dental examination conducted by the dentist.  Once the dental professional enters the patient’s dental and oral health information, the CARE tool will generate a risk assessment (low, moderate, high and extreme) and provide recommendations  to manage the patient’s oral health.

 

Q: How can/does the tool improve the standard of care in the office?

A: Oral disease risk assessment has been informally conducted in dental offices for decades. This is because we have routinely gathered information regarding our patient’s medical, dental, and social histories as well as clinical findings. Whether we realized it or not this information has identified risk indicators, risk factors, and protective factors, all components of a comprehensive risk assessment.

Formalized risk assessment in dentistry has been discussed and studies have been published for over three decades; but it has not been until this last decade that the use of risk assessment to assist in clinical decision making has been promoted and emphasized. Best practices dictates that once the dental professional identifies the patient’s risk for oral disease, evidence-based treatments or recommendations may be used to create a therapeutic and/or preventive care plan that will assist the patient in achieving optimum oral health. Knowing the patient’s risk for a particular oral disease is very appealing from a patient care perspective. This tool helps to formalize oral disease risk assessment and at the same time provides dental professionals with evidence-based recommendations, unique to the patient’s risk level  that can be used to develop treatment plans for patients. Conducting risk assessments in a standardized way will help dental professionals improve their professional care.

 

Q: Do offices charge patients for the assessment/screening- is the assessment covered by insurance?

A: Whether a dental office conducts a risk assessment as part of the patient’s comprehensive examination or charges the patient a fee to conduct a risk assessment is really up to the individual dental practice.  In my private practice, the risk assessment is a component of the dental examination.  There are insurance billing codes that can be used for various components of the risk assessment process available for dental offices to use. These codes are available within the CARE tool as a downloaded PDF.

 

Q: Please feel free to share anything you think is important for dentists to know about the tool.

A: With so many patients and so little time, conducting comprehensive risk assessment can be a challenge.  The Philips CARE tool makes identifying risk levels and creating personalized treatment protocols much easier. And it’s free—no strings attached!  In addition,  patient handout that is generated by the dental professional choosing the recommendations needed for the patient can be customized with the dental practice logo and address.  The CARE website also provides a short demonstration video and a webinar for additional learning materials on conducting risk assessments. 

Michelle serves on the Philips advisory board and received compensation for this project; however she did not receive compensation for this article.