{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T12:15:25Z","timestamp":1790079325062,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790035200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Oral Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Patient engagement is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of high-quality, patient-centered care. Although the OpenNotes initiative, which gives patients direct access to their clinical notes through electronic health records, has demonstrated significant benefits in medicine, its application in dentistry remains largely unexplored despite the elective and decision-intensive nature of dental care. This targeted narrative review was informed by a PubMed search conducted on March 26, 2026, using the terms (\u201cOpenNotes\u201d OR \u201cshared clinical notes\u201d OR \u201cpatient access to records\u201d) AND (\u201cdentistry\u201d OR \u201cdental\u201d), which identified 12 articles and no studies directly addressing OpenNotes implementation in dental practice. Consequently, the anticipated benefits for dentistry are derived by analogy with medical evidence and should be regarded as hypotheses requiring empirical testing rather than established findings. We examined the potential of OpenNotes as a patient engagement strategy in dentistry, including its benefits, the structural and technical barriers unique to dental documentation, and the enabling role of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and teledentistry, and found that, based on evidence from medical OpenNotes programs, note sharing may improve treatment adherence, shared decision-making, and patient empowerment in dentistry as well, although important barriers remain, including procedure-centric documentation, specialized terminology, fragmented electronic health record adoption, and privacy regulations; overall, OpenNotes appears to hold substantial promise for enhancing patient engagement in dentistry, but realizing this potential will require coordinated efforts in documentation standardization, clinician training, technology infrastructure, and regulatory compliance, with pilot implementation in academic dental institutions representing a pragmatic first step toward building an evidence base for broader adoption.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/froh.2026.1846849","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T11:51:58Z","timestamp":1790077918000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["OpenNotes in dentistry as a strategy for patient engagement: opportunities, barriers, and a framework for implementation"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Toshiyuki","family":"Nagasawa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Periodontology and Endodontology, Department of Oral Rehabilitation, School of Dentistry, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido","place":["Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan"]},{"name":"Division of Advanced Clinical Education, Department of Integrated Dental Education, School of Dentistry, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido","place":["Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Osamu","family":"Uehara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Disease Control and Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Oral Growth and Development, School of Dentistry, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido","place":["Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hirofumi","family":"Matsuoka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Disease Control and Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Oral Growth and Development, School of Dentistry, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido","place":["Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Katsuya","family":"Kawanishi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Advanced Clinical Education, Department of Integrated Dental Education, School of Dentistry, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido","place":["Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Izabela","family":"Mamcarz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Simulation Laboratory for Patient Safety, Chair of Medical Education, Medical University of Lublin","place":["Lublin, Poland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Renata","family":"Cha\u0142as","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Oral Medicine, Medical University of Lublin","place":["Lublin, Poland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Piotr","family":"Stachurski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dental Emergency, Medical University of Lublin","place":["Lublin, Poland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kamil","family":"Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Plastic, Reconstructive Surgery and Microsurgery, Medical University of Lublin","place":["Lublin, Poland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tsuneo","family":"Sekimoto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Nippon Dental University School of Life Dentistry at Niigata","place":["Niigata, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yoshihiro","family":"Abiko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Oral Medicine and Pathology, Department of Human Biology and Pathophysiology, School of Dentistry, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido","place":["Tobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100","DOI":"10.1370\/afm.1239","article-title":"The values and value of patient-centered care","volume":"9","author":"Epstein","year":"2011","journal-title":"Ann Fam 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