Expanded role of dentists in adolescent health care: Challenges in building confidential patient relationships while involving parents in their child's health care

According to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, each year 20 million people in the United States see a dentist but not a general health care provider. An estimated 26% of children under age 18 did not have contact with a general health care provider in 2008; however, 35% of these children were seen in a dental practice at least once that year. These findings suggest that dental offices could be a good place to screen patients for a variety of diseases. The dentist, in turn, could refer patients to a primary care provider for further workup. Expanding the role of dentists in adolescent health care can raise competing interests and duties, especially related to sensitive health areas such as reproductive health, STDs, mental health, and substance abuse. Good health care depends on the patient providing full information to health care providers; however, confidentiality is crucial for adolescents to discuss sensitive health areas and seek treatment. For this reason, most states allow minors to obtain certain health care services without the consent or knowledge of their parents. This session will describe the legal, ethical, and policy challenges in screening and referring minors for health problems that recognize minor's confidentiality needs and parents' involvement in their child's health care and options for addressing these challenges.