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Hindawi Publishing Corporation Nursing Research and Practice Volume 2012, Article ID 720506, 4 pages doi:10.1155/2012/720506 Research Article The Primary Care Visit: What Else Could Be Happening? Terry Fulmer and Patricia Cabrera Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Terry Fulmer, t.fulmer@ Received 1 April 2012; Accepted 19 April 2012 Academic Editor: Rita Jablonski Copyright © 2012 T. Fulmer and P. Cabrera. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Institute of Medicine Report called for a greater role for nurses within the context of oral health in two recent publications, Advancing Oral Health in America (2011) and Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations (2011). Nurses provide care for many vulnerable persons, including frail and functionally dependent older adults, persons with disabilities, and persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These persons are the least likely to receive necessary, health-sustaining dental care (which is distinct from mouth care). The mouth, or more accurately, plaque, serves as a reservoir for bacteria and pathogens. The link between mouth care, oral health, and systemic health is well-documented; infections such as pneumonia have been linked to poor oral health. Nurses, therefore, need to reframe mouth care as oral infection control and infection control more broadly. The can provide the preventive measure that are crucial to minimizing systemic infections. Nurses in all settings can potentiall