By Oral Health Access Santa Cruz County co-Chairs Dientes Dental Director Dr. Sepi Walthard and Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend
For the fortunate, your dentist improves your life. By maintaining the health of your teeth, your dentist helps you chew and eat better. She affects your social life by preserving your smile. By keeping your mouth healthy, she also impacts your overall health. And last but not least, she screens for diseases such as oral cancer.
For thousands of low-income residents of Santa Cruz County, none of this is possible due to lack of access to dental care. A first-ever oral health needs assessment report commissioned by Dientes Community Dental Care, exposed the severity of this problem in our community. The report included some shocking statistics: out of 80,000 Medi-Cal patients in Santa Cruz County, only 24,000 were able to access the dentist. 30% of Santa Cruz County children under age 11 had never been to the dentist. Only 10 private practitioners out of 58 in the county accepted Medi-Cal and most of them were not accepting new patients.
The 17-member Oral Health Access Santa Cruz County steering committee was established to evaluate the needs assessment and develop a strategic plan to address the crisis in our community by 2020. Here are our results:
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First Tooth First Birthday campaign: It’s recommended by dental and medical experts that a child has his first dental visit by age 1 or by the time he has his first tooth. This visit is a perfect opportunity to educate the parent about oral health and focus on prevention. This goal aims to increase dental utilization for 0-3 year olds from the current 43% to 60% by 2020 through consistent messaging and education.
Mandatory kinder / first grade dental check-ups: This activity will be a continuation of AB1433—an optional California law that is supported by studies showing that children with decay may have a difficult time focusing and learning in school. This goal aims to maintain the 65% dental utilization rate for 4-6 year olds by making it mandatory for children to see the dentist before enrolling in public schools for the first time. Dientes and Salud Para La Gente, have committed to reserving spots in their schedules to accommodate children who are on Medi-Cal and need a dental check-up before enrolling into kindergarten or first grade.
Expand Capacity: Lack of clinical capacity is one of the main barriers in access to dental care for low-income patients. The goal of expanding clinical capacity will be achieved in 3 ways:
Increase clinic space: Dientes will be opening a new 10 chair dental clinic adjacent to and in collaboration with Santa Cruz Community Health Centers at East Cliff. The goal is to open the new space by 2020 and serve an additional 8,000 dental patients.
Pediatricians apply fluoride at well-child visits: This goal focuses on an emerging practice that is being widely lauded by medical and dental experts. The aim is to make the application of fluoride by medical professionals at 0-5 year old well-child visits the standard of care in Santa Cruz County by 2020.
Expanding the dental workforce: Salud aims to add a pediatric dentist and mid-level dental providers to improve their efficiency and increase total dental visits by 20% by 2020.
The current state of oral health in our county is simply not acceptable. We are proud to have such a broad network of community leaders come together in order to affect change. We believe that this Strategic Plan will make an impact in the oral health of our county, but our work has just begun and we cannot do it alone. We need your support. You can help us by co-championing a recommendation, sharing your ideas, or donating time, talent or money towards one of these efforts.
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Please visit us at http://oralhealthscc.org for more information and email us at [email protected] to tell us how you can help.