CareQuest Innovation Partners, a company that funds, scales, and convenes transformative solutions to improve overall health through oral health for all, and PDS Health®, a leading integrated health care support organization, today announced an initiative to expand blood pressure screening and patient consultation in dental settings, an important step in advancing medical-dental integration and improving whole-person care.
Growing evidence shows a strong link between periodontal (gum) disease and cardiovascular disease. Individuals with gum disease, for example, are two to three times more likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event. Oral disease is also associated with increased risk of hypertension, and delaying dental care in early adulthood is tied to a higher chance of developing high blood pressure later in life.
The health impacts aren’t just clinical. High blood pressure is one of the most expensive conditions in the US, with annual costs around $219 billion. Gaps in oral health care, including missed opportunities for early detection, can contribute to the development and progression of chronic conditions, adding to the financial strain on individuals and the health care system. Despite these connections, oral health care is still often siloed from primary medical care.
Through this partnership, CareQuest Innovation Partners and PDS Health are scaling a standardized workflow to deliver blood pressure screening as a routine part of dental care. Catching high blood pressure earlier can help patients avoid serious complications like heart disease and stroke. Dental visits represent a critical, often-overlooked opportunity to identify broader health risks. Notably, an estimated 9% of people in the US visit a dentist but not a physician each year, creating a key opening for oral health professionals to detect conditions like hypertension earlier and guide patients to follow-up care.
“Addressing complex health challenges requires collaboration, and we are committed to bringing together partners across health care to bridge the medical-dental divide,” said Katie D’Amico, Vice President of Growth & Innovation at CareQuest Innovation Partners. “PDS Health brings the integrated experience patients need, with direct paths to scale. This partnership turns insight into action, leveraging combined medical and dental data to better understand where patients are falling through the cracks and activate sustainable solutions that improve and even save lives.”
The collaboration will use integrated data and patient feedback to uncover the burden of undiagnosed hypertension. Findings will inform a scalable industry workflow and generate payer-facing insights to support sustainable medical-dental integration models and wider adoption across the health care system.
“The future of health care is integrated, preventive, and patient-centered,” said Dan Burke, Chief Enterprise Strategy Officer at PDS Health. “This collaboration builds on our longstanding commitment to medical-dental integration and enables us to show how dental settings can play a meaningful role in identifying and managing chronic conditions like hypertension.”
Building on prior collaborations between CareQuest Innovation Partners and PDS Health, including work through SMILE Health and the HLTH Oral Health Pavilion, this effort reflects a shared commitment to advancing whole-person care.
The six-month collaboration reaching 10,000 patients launched in April 2026 across five PDS Health dental practices in three states: Dentists of Hialeah (Hialeah, FL), Walerga Dental Group (Antelope, CA), Goodyear Smiles Dentistry (Goodyear, AZ), Dentists of Doral (Doral, FL), and Elk Grove Dental Group (Elk Grove, CA). Following the initial phase, CareQuest Innovation Partners and PDS Health plan to expand across PDS Health’s nationwide network and make preventive health screenings in dental practices across the US an industry standard.
To learn more, please visit https://carequestinnovation.com/partnerships/.
About CareQuest Innovation Partners
CareQuest Innovation Partners® funds, scales, and convenes transformative solutions to improve overall health through oral health. Together, with our ecosystem of leading industry partners, startups, and investors, we make health care more accessible, equitable, and integrated. CareQuest Innovation Partners is the for-profit subsidiary of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, and they are joined by the mission to improve the oral health of all. To learn more, visit carequestinnovation.com and follow us on X/Twitter and LinkedIn.
About PDS Health
PDS Health® continues the journey started by Pacific Dental Services® in 1994, with a vision to redefine health care through the integration of dental and medical services. Its approach, centered on the connection between oral health and overall health, aims to create healthier, happier patients and set new benchmarks in the health care industry. As a leading provider of integrated health care support, the company delivers a broad spectrum of services to dental, dental specialties, and medical providers, enhancing operations and care delivery for clinicians across the US. For more information about PDS Health and its vision, visit pdshealth.com.
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