Author's note: For most of my career, I have been part of what I now call "the care delivery movement" in dentistry. It started with mobile and portable dentistry, long before those models were considered strategic. Then COVID-19 forced the industry to look differently at where care could happen, how patients could be reached, and what role virtual tools could play in oral healthcare. We saw a spike in interest, then a predictable pause as dentistry tried to return to what felt familiar. But the conversation did not go away.
Now, with AI, we're seeing an even greater spike in interest as teledentistry is becoming less of a stand-alone service and more of an infrastructure layer inside modern dental practices, payer systems, employer benefits, and care navigation models, which is why this conversation matters right now. Care delivery is no longer a niche topic. It is one of the central questions shaping the future of dentistry.
I have been talking about dental care delivery for most of my career. Long before mobile dentistry was cool, long before teledentistry became part of the mainstream dental conversation, and long before people started using phrases like "alternative care models" in boardrooms, I was watching one very simple truth play out in real life: Dental care does not always need to happen inside a traditional dental office.
Sometimes it happens at a workplace, a school, a senior living facility, and, sometimes, at the patient's residence. It may sometimes be delivered via a laptop, phone, or a mobile unit parked outside of a building.
That idea has shaped my entire career. I started in mobile and portable dentistry, helped lead conversations around expanding care beyond traditional walls, and then spent the last decade helping bring virtual care into the industry because I saw what many others were slower to acknowledge: the future of dentistry was never going to be built only around the brick-and-mortar op. It was going to be built around the patient. Now the industry is finally catching up.
The ADA's Oral Health 2050 initiative is asking dentistry to examine the next 25 years of oral health and care delivery and whether it is in the center of the conversation alongside AI and technology, wellness, payment models, and the broader future of dentistry.
Care delivery is no longer simply a "public health" play. It is what's expected. It is a growth tool. It is a reach tool. It is an access tool. It is convenience at its finest. Truthfully? It's also downright fun.
To add payer-side context, I asked Michael Cembrola, chief revenue officer, to weigh in. Cembrola has worked across dental benefits, employer programs, and mobile care delivery, giving him a useful view into how insurers and employers are responding to the same shift I have watched from the clinical, mobile, teledentistry, and industry leadership side.
Melissa K. Turner, RDH.
Melissa K. Turner: To be frank, dentistry has had a long habit of admiring the access problem without actually redesigning around it. We talk about workforce shortages, patients not coming in, and people not using their benefits. We talk about dental deserts, Medicaid gaps, and rural access and school-based care. We strive for the precise number of new patients each month.
But at some point, we have to stop acting surprised. The system is showing us exactly where it is strained. And what I have learned from spending my career inside mobile dentistry, portable dentistry, and teledentistry is that care delivery is not just a public health issue. It is a business issue, a workforce issue, a payer issue, a patient experience issue, and a future-of-dentistry issue.
Michael, from your side of the industry, what are you seeing that makes this care delivery conversation feel urgent right now?
Michael Cembrola: The system is under real pressure. Workforce shortages, access and care gaps that have not been successfully addressed, and employers and members demanding the actual care and access they are paying for. The hard questions are finally being asked, and it is time for someone to connect the clinical side and the payer side of this conversation.
Turner: This is bigger than innovation. People love to call mobile dentistry, teledentistry, AI, virtual consults, and employer-based care "innovation." And, yes, some of it is innovative, but I think what we are really watching is actually restructuring, not just of where care happens, but of who is responsible for ensuring it happens in the first place. The patient? The provider? The employer? The payer? The dental service organization (DSO)? The hygienist? The technology company? The answer is probably yes to all of them.
This is a conversation I have been pushing for years, because dentistry cannot keep pretending that the traditional office model alone will solve every access, utilization, prevention, and workforce challenge. It will not.
So, is the current system actually sustainable as it stands?
Cembrola: I agree with that, and I would go further than calling it "a restructuring of delivery." It is really a restructuring of who is accountable.
Payers, employers, and patients are all demanding more, and the traditional dental office model was not built to absorb that. The current system works for people who currently have access. For everyone else, it is failing, and the cracks are starting to show.
Turner: This is where I want the industry to be really careful. Mobile dentistry is not "less than" dentistry. Portable dentistry is not the backup plan, and teledentistry is not pretend dentistry.
For a long time, these models were treated as niche, charitable, public health, rural, or Medicaid-only solutions. I have never believed that. I have always seen mobile and portable dentistry as a serious care delivery strategy. We can provide comprehensive onsite dentistry to every person, not just preventive services.
Employers and insurers are paying more attention now. What is driving the growth of mobile dentistry, and why does the payer side care more now than it used to?
Michael Cembrola.
Cembrola: A lot of it comes down to meeting people where they are. We live in a world where you can get almost anything on your phone instantaneously, and healthcare is moving in the same direction. Employers are offering mobile dentistry as a worksite benefit because they want employees present, not leaving for a two-hour dental appointment. That is a real driver that does not get talked about enough.
On the insurer side, the numbers tell the story. Nationally, less than half the people with dental coverage actually get their preventive visits every year. Insurers are being challenged by employers to help their members actually use the benefit they are paying for, and mobile dentistry is one of the most direct answers to that problem. More preventive care utilization and treating dental problems earlier means lower downstream costs. That is a benefit to everybody.
Turner: The brick-and-mortar dental office is not disappearing, but it is not the only answer, and that's the part traditional practices need to hear without getting defensive. Mobile dentistry is not automatically coming for your patients. It can extend your reach, support prevention, send restorative care back into the traditional practice setting, help DSOs reach more people, and give solo practices a completely different way to think about access. We're now seeing a resurgence of phrases like "convergent care" and "integrated care."
How can dental offices become part of a more flexible care delivery ecosystem? That is the conversation I wish more dental leaders, payers, founders, and practice owners were willing to have. The future is not mobile versus traditional. It is connected care, delivered through the right model at the right moment.
How do you see mobile and portable dentistry fitting into traditional networks?
Cembrola: Mobile and portable dentistry is not replacing traditional practices. It is extending them. A dental practice simply adds a mobile or virtual division to the business model.
From a network standpoint, most payers treat mobile providers similarly to the rest of their network, though some have slightly different credentialing and contracting pathways, and some even have different reimbursement structures.
For solo practitioners and DSOs, the right way to think about it is as an extension of what they already do. If you work with one of the dedicated mobile dentistry companies, they will often refer patients back to traditional practices for additional work depending on what they treat. And this goes well beyond a rural or Medicaid story.
Employers run mobile programs at their campuses. Schools and senior living facilities use them. The populations being served are much broader than people think, and practices that find ways to integrate mobile into their model may have a real competitive advantage going forward.
Turner: Let's talk about teledentistry, because this one still makes people feel their feels. Teledentistry is not the destination but the front door. I have been in the teledentistry conversation for a decade, and I still hear people say, "What can you really do through teledentistry?"
My answer is usually, "You may be asking the wrong question." Teledentistry was never supposed to replace every dental visit. It is not about pretending you can prep a crown through a screen. It is about triage, navigation, follow-up, access, urgency, education, and helping people take the next right step. It's about creating a more efficient schedule, where only the clinical op is reserved for procedures that have to take place there.
I have always believed teledentistry's biggest opportunity is not that it replaces the operatory but that it creates a smarter path into care. Take, for example, the baby boomers who are starting to become inactive patients simply because they're losing autonomy. They can't drive in the rain, the dark, and are now beginning to deal with complex health situations with large and fragmented care teams. This fact alone will be detrimental to practice revenue in the next several years. Practices that implement virtual appointments now with their boomer patients will retain them as active patients, thus preserving practice growth.
So what has held adoption back, and where does teledentistry actually fit today?
Cembrola: A lot of people now have access to teledentistry through their insurer or other programs, more than they realize. But telemedicine did not take off on Day 1 either, and historically, the dental industry runs about 10 years behind medicine. I think we will see a day when it really picks up.
Part of what has held it back is perception. Most people do not think there is much a dentist can do over a phone or video call, but there are some really strong programs out there where patients can get care pretty efficiently. The real role is not replacing the chair; it is triage, care navigation, and follow-up.
Turner: That is exactly the point. Teledentistry is not the whole house, it is the front door. If dentistry is serious about access, then we need better front doors. We need after-hours options. We need virtual consults. We need smarter follow-up. We need patients to stop guessing whether something is urgent, whether they need to be seen, or where they should go next. In the past, we've seen these changes as adding to the dentist owner's to-do list. These days? It doesn't take as much time, effort, or resources to make these changes swiftly and effectively without adding bulk to the to-do list.
For providers and DSOs, that is not merely patient care. That is patient acquisition, patient retention, and brand trust. It is also why I believe teledentistry belongs in the strategic care delivery conversation, not just the technology conversation. It is not about the platform. It is about what the platform makes possible.
Are insurers already seeing teledentistry that way?
Cembrola: Yes, I see teledentistry evolving into more of a front door for oral healthcare. Most insurers in this country have teledentistry as a standard across their benefit plans now.
But where I see the big untapped opportunity is on the provider side. For dentists and DSOs, I view this as a patient acquisition and retention tool. After-hours emergency services, virtual consults, follow-up care -- if I were a dentist or running a DSO, this is how I would look at it. The providers who get ahead of this now are going to have a real advantage.
Coming in Part 2
The conversation shifts from where care happens to how it is paid for and whether the current payment system is built to support the access, quality, and prevention goals dentistry says it wants. Part 2 covers prevention-first models, payer economics, payment reform, and the expanding role of AI in measuring and rewarding quality care. Read Part 2 next week on DrBicuspid.com.
Melissa K. Turner is a dental industry strategist, conference and brand architect, and founder of the HALO System, a framework focused on influence, visibility, and leadership in the age of AI. Learn more about her at www.MelissaKTurner.com.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
