Exploring the inclusion of dental providers on interprofessional healthcare teams treating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a rapid review

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the world. Emerging concepts like One Health, integrated models for COPD, and associations between oral and respiratory health are innovative ways to approach COPD treatment. This study explored contemporary evidence on the inclusion of dental providers on interprofessional healthcare teams treating patients with COPD. The first objective was to explore the current state of interprofessional care for COPD treatment, and the second objective was to explore dentistry used in interprofessional care scenarios. A rapid review was conducted from March–June 2020 using Scopus and PubMed. Upon assessing for duplication and relevance, 85 articles remained for Objective 1, and 194 for Objective 2. The literature strongly suggests that dental providers should be included on interprofessional healthcare teams to best approach COPD as a multi-morbid, chronic disease. The papers collected for review claim that educatio...