CareQuest Institute for Oral Health and Henry Schein, Inc. have unveiled the BRIDGE Health Network, a program that unites providers in varied practice settings and locations in an effort to knit dentistry and medicine more closely together. The first pilot programs will have dental teams record patient vitals, collect lifestyle information, and administer CLIA-waived chairside tests, among them HbA1c, as part of standard hygiene appointments. According to the companies, the effort is intended to widen the range of preventive screenings available in dental settings, produce fuller health summaries for patients on a more regular basis, and reduce gaps in care involving medical providers.
The new initiative brings together providers across a range of geographies and care settings to strengthen connections between dentistry and medicine. According to the companies, the goal is to broaden the preventive screenings practices can offer, give patients more frequent overall health summaries, and reduce gaps in care involving medical providers.
The companies report that 80 percent of individuals with prediabetes and 28 percent with diabetes are unaware of their condition, and that chairside A1C screening has been shown to identify elevated HbA1c levels in more than 11 percent of previously undiagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes and an additional 47 percent with prediabetes. The US health care system could save up to $100 million a year by addressing these conditions earlier, according to the announcement.
“Dentistry has historically been a siloed area of health care despite the strong correlation it has with a myriad of chronic health conditions,” said Azeem Mallick, MBA, vice president of Innovation & Partnerships at CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. “The BRIDGE Health Network reflects our commitment to improving overall health through oral health, and our collaboration with Henry Schein helps us scale that impact by bringing practical, integrated solutions to providers across a wide range of care settings.”
In the first pilots, dental teams will screen for risk, provide a systemic-health summary, educational resources, and support patients in follow-up care. The stated aims are to co-design pilots demonstrating the efficacy, feasibility, and benefit of preventive screenings in dental settings; to advance the business case for dental-medical integration across clinical, financial, and operational outcomes; and to create a playbook of actionable workflows and best practices.
Henry Schein will oversee rollout of the pilots, acting as the main point of contact for practices needing equipment and supplies, technical assistance, and training. CareQuest, working alongside Henry Schein and the clinics taking part, will supply data at the program level to back the effort. Dentrix Ascend has also been updated with new fields so that participating offices can record point-of-care screening results in the system itself, allowing wider health data to become part of the patient's chart and everyday dental care.
“Diabetes can go undiagnosed for years, and the dental chair is one of the few places people reliably show up during that window,” said Ryan Hungate, DDS, MS, chief strategy and clinical officer at Henry Schein One. “This pilot puts a point-of-care HbA1c screening in the operatory to help identify patients who may be at risk and could benefit from follow-up with a medical provider. This screening result is now captured directly in Ascend or Axium, helping create a more holistic health history of the patient for future visits.”
The inaugural cohort includes Bright Direction Dental, Imagine Medical & Dental Group, NKC Dental, Smile House JBL, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, Workman School of Dental Medicine at High Point University, Westwind Integrative Health, and Zufall Health.
“Health care is at an exciting inflection point, one where dentistry and medicine are increasingly being viewed as synergistic rather than two separate entities,” said David Kochman, JD, chief corporate affairs officer at Henry Schein. “In collaboration with CareQuest and our clinical partners, the BRIDGE Health Network is creating a blueprint for a new approach to primary health care - focused on early detection and prevention, built upon the foundation of dental-medical integration.”
The Network was recently featured at the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health Conference from September 10 to 12. It will also be featured at HLTH from November 15 to 18, 2026, and at the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention from January 21 to 23, 2027.
More information is available at www.henryschein.com.
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