Peer Specialist Model : A peer specialist model in dentistry integrates trained peer support workers or peer-assisted learning to bridge oral health gaps, reduce professional isolation, or enhance clinical training. 
Trained Peer Support Specialists (PSS) work within mental health centers to provide oral health education, reduce dental anxiety, and actively link vulnerable populations—such as individuals with severe mental illness—to necessary dental care. Oral health affects whole health and quality of life. This is especially true for people with serious mental illness, a population with heightened risks for oral disease and needs for oral treatment. People with serious mental illnesses, such as psychosis-spectrum disorders and other mental health challenges requiring long-term mental health care, face significant oral health disparities. They are vulnerable to oral disease risks and have greater oral treatment needs than the general population. Despite robust research demonstrating the benefits of integrating behavioral and medical care,oral health is often left out of the integration landscape. A renewed focus on the oral health of people with serious mental illness is reflected in a national call to address the lack of integration of oral health and behavioral health. peer support specialists (PSSs) set out to design a sustainable integrated oral health program designed to improve oral health knowledge, self-care behaviors, and service use among people with serious mental illness. We partnered with a health education nonprofit organization to develop oral health educational materials specifically designed to address the challenges experienced by people living with serious mental illness.
Our organization plans to implement a peer specialist model to narrate their personal dental experiences to other community members. The narration of their own personal experiences and their struggles in utilizing the dental services will be useful to reduce dental phobia and dental anxiety disorders. It will also be useful to understand the barriers in accessing the oral health services in rural areas. Center for OralHealthEquity and Research  implemented peer specialist  program in the Town of Natick in 2020. One barrier noted in achieving peer specialist support group was the belief that dental needs were a low priority compared with other interventional programs.