Medical School course invites dental expertise for interprofessional collaboration

A course for University of Minnesota Medical School students is providing opportunities for collaboration and interprofessional education with School of Dentistry faculty and students.

When Eileen Crespo, MD, went to medical school about 30 years ago, she didn’t hear much at all about oral heatlh—but as soon as she started seeing patients as a pediatric resident and in her own practice, she began to notice troubling trends. “I was sending very small children, sometimes two years old, to the operating room for extractions,” she recalled. “I wanted to know why this was happening, and what we could do to prevent it.” 

Crespo began her own journey of incorporating oral health and hygiene information into well-child visits—and she became a fierce advocate for oral health counseling in pediatric visits at the state and national level. In addition to moving the needle on oral health education for providers, this work led to Crespo’s role with Delta Dental of Minnesota, which she joined in 2017.

“My job is, essentially, to explore how we can help people understand how important their oral health is, and how it affects their overall health.” She’s taken on a variety of initiatives, including teaching a course to students at the medical school.

It started as an elective, student-requested course during Becoming a Doctor week—but over time, the course has expanded. The first growth opportunity for the course came when Crespo met Angie Hastings, DMD, clinical associate professor and director of the Division of Community Outreach and Engagement, at a networking event.  

“I remember discussing how we could collaborate and get our dental students involved, and a couple months later, I received a request from her to make the discussion a reality,” explained Hastings. 

Beginning in 2024, Hastings and a few dental students joined Crespo for her lecture to provide support and guidance. “I was impressed by Dr. Crespo’s in-depth oral exam lecture and how she modeled the importance of medical providers understanding disease presentation in the oral cavity,” Hastings reflected. 

For the past two years, students have guided their medical colleagues through a hands-on demonstration of oral exams. Medical students on the Twin Cities campus take this portion of the course in the dental operatories in Moos Tower to simulate the oral examination environment. New to this year, the course is now mandatory for all third-year medical students, and took place on all three campuses—with dental students traveling to Duluth and St. Cloud to provide lecture support. 

Youmna Ahmed, DDS ’26, decided to help with this year’s course because “I strongly believe in interprofessional collaboration between dentistry and medicine,” she said. “Oral health is closely connected to overall health, and opportunities like this can help bridge the gap between the two fields.” 

She participated in the Twin Cities lecture and found it to be “a rewarding experience.” 

“The medical students were engaged, curious and eager to learn the oral examination process," she reflected. “It was great to see their interest in understanding the structures of the oral cavity and how to perform a systematic oral exam. What stood out to me was how comfortable they were participating—many students who noticed that they themselves had certain findings were not shy about sharing them with their peers. This made the session very interactive and helped everyone learn from real examples.” 

Laith Alishaqi, DDS ’27, who traveled to Duluth to support the course, wanted to provide medical students with an opportunity to experience oral health care. “In the dental clinic, we frequently refer our patients to a specialist or primary care provider if we notice things like skin lesions or hypertension,” he explained. “Medical students don’t often get a detailed learning experience when it comes to the oral cavity, and that is a huge missed opportunity to detect and save a patient’s life.” He enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with peers and appreciated their excitement and receptivity to the information shared. 

Yu Sun, DDS ’27, made the journey to St. Cloud because “dentistry and medicine do not always interact closely in training, and participating in this session helped me bridge that gap and promote better communication between the two professions.” 

“Medical providers often see patients more regularly than dentists, and medical insurance coverage is often more widely used,” Sun explained. “Because of this, physicians are in a strong position to notice early signs and symptoms of oral disease, including oral cancer."

The response to the course has been overwhelmingly positive, as evidenced by the move to require all students to take it. “We wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t value it,” Crespo said. “They’ve learned that an oral exam is not intimidating, and it can be done as part of their overall exam.” 

And most importantly, this course is connecting health professional students and preparing them to care for their patients’ oral and overall health. 

“When patients cannot easily access a dentist, preventable issues can turn into severe pain or infections, which land them in the emergency room,” Hastings explained. “We not only need help from our medical colleagues to identify oral diseases early so they can be treated, but also because physicians are the providers who care for those patients in emergency departments.”