Janet A. Yellowitz, DMD, MPH
As a diplomat of the American Board of Special Care Dentistry, a fellow of the American Society of Geriatric Dentistry, and director of Geriatric Dentistry at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, I have been actively involved as an educator, clinician, and researcher in the fields of special care and geriatric dentistry. For 16 years, I served on the National Elder Care Advisory Committee, the primary elderly-focused committee of the American Dental Association. I was a principal investigator for the Maryland Regional Interdisciplinary Geriatrics Training Program for Physicians, Dentists and Behavioral/Mental Health Professionals fellowship program 15 years.
My education and research activities have focused on the be integration of oral health with general health for dental and health care providers. Helping health care professionals become team members by better understanding the relationship of oral to general health as well as optimal approaches to care for older adults and those with special needs has been a long term goal. Helping to keep the population in good oral health is a lifetime goal. I hope to help the lay and professional community better address the barriers to oral health care experienced by many underserved and uninsured groups as well as to help individuals understand their need for routine oral health care.
As a public health dentist and educator, one of my primary activities has focused on the many uses of silver diamine fluoride (SDF). Since SDF is primarily used to arrest caries and is a non-aerosol-producing agent, it was well-suited for providing care during the COVID crises. Silver diamine fluoride is needed for those experiencing dental caries as well as those needing preventive care.
Helping colleagues and health professional better understand the oral health care needs and demands of medically complex older adults and those with developmental and learning disabilities is a critical societal need and a daily occurrence for me. My clinical activities are focused on the didactic and clinical training of dental and dental hygiene students in the care of patients with special health care needs as well as those who are medically complex, cognitively impaired, and those considered frail elders. My goal is to better prepare health care professionals to appropriately incorporate oral health care as a component of general health care and to ensure that oral health care of adults is an integral part of the knowledge, opinions, and behaviors of future health care practitioners.
