Taiwo Ngo, DDS, frequently gets dental referrals at Midwest Dental Center in Toledo, Ohio, for children who don’t have a dental home or who need access to care as part of her work with CareQuest Institute’s MORE Care™ pilot program. Quite a few of Ngo’s referrals come from Kehinde Obeto, MD, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, also in Toledo, Ohio.
The two providers have a very close relationship — they are twin sisters from Nigeria who both provide care to underserved populations in Ohio.
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.”
In a new blog post about the value of medical-dental integration, the duo explains how participating in MORE Care has helped them work together to help even more people in need.
