Sign of the Times: Tough Economy Shows in Dental Visits

Dr. Doyle Williams, Chief Dental Officer, DentaQuest

A public opinion survey* by Oral Health America confirmed a trend that I’ve been hearing about lately as I talk to dentists across the United States.

The survey revealed that one-third (35 percent) of people who regularly visit the dentist are going less frequently. One-half (47 percent) of larger households and households with children reduced their visits to the dentist in the past year. Families with younger children cut back more than households with slightly older children.

Regrettably, preventive dental care appears to be something that is falling through the cracks, when families are faced with managing competing needs in a challenging economy.

And that concerns me.

Dental care is the #1 unmet health care need for children and low-income adults. Cavities and gum disease are preventable. Regular dental visits are investments in long term good health. With regular visits, it is more likely that problems can be found early when dentists can help teeth “heal” without any drilling. Your oral health caregiver can show you how to protect yourself and your children from getting cavities and gum disease by helping you understand your risk factors and protective factors. You may also be told about preventive treatments, like sealants, a thin protective coating painted on the molars of the teeth of children and adolescents, to protect against cavities.

Cavities and gum disease are bacterial infections. Studies show links between gum disease and premature births, diabetes, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease. I was recently very saddened to read about the young father in Ohio who died from an infection that started in a wisdom tooth and spread to his brain.

Not going to the dentist means you don’t get early warning of problems or important preventive education and information to keep you from needing costly treatments later.

*Oral Health America public opinion survey sponsored by Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait and Plackers

Make This a Fall for Smiles!

By Steve Pollock, President, DentaQuest

Good dental health starts at home, and parents and caregivers are THE most important role models for their children. Oral Health America has a nice booklet, Fall for Smiles, on their website that can help families talk about good oral health. Also, from September 19-25, Trident gum is donating 5 cents to Smiles Across America® for every pack of Trident gum sold. Smiles Across America helps children who do not get regular dental visits because their families lack resources, insurance, transportation, or because of language barriers.

Make this a fall for Smiles! Brush and floss your teeth daily. Be careful about the sugars in your diet. Avoid tobacco products. And schedule a visit with your dentist.

Bananas about MOM

By Felix Layne, Vice President Finance, DentaQuest

From left to right: Pat Finnerty, DentaQuest Foundation; Bridget Hengle, DentaQuest; Felix Layne, DentaQuest; Cheryl Harris, DentaQuest; Debborah Oswalt, Virginia Health Care Foundation (ED); Waradah Eargle, DentaQuest.

Bananas and oral health? You bet they’re connected!

First let me give you some context for this story. Over 425 volunteers from Virginia and 12 states traveled to rural Western Virginia this summer to make the Wise County Mission of Mercy (MOM), sponsored by the Virginia Dental Association Foundation, and the delivery of free dental care to underserved people possible. Volunteers were dentists and hygienists as well as those not directly involved in delivering care, like me—I work in the finance department of DentaQuest.

This was my second Wise County MOM experience, and last year my role was dental hygienist assistant. This year, I was a member of the DentaQuest Virginia team responsible for distributing snacks and beverages to help sustain the hard working volunteers. This year, a dentist came to the DentaQuest snack trailer asking for a banana because his hand was cramping. The dental teams work in extremely hot tents starting at 5:30 am and continue late into the night—so one would expect hand cramping! What helps a cramping hand? The potassium found in bananas, and we didn’t have any.

I looked at the dentist and at the lines of people waiting for care and knew there was only one thing to do. Get bananas! At the nearest supermarket, I bought the entire supply of bananas -- 4 cases totaling 160lbs. There wasn’t a single banana left by the end of the day. Next year, we’ll be purchasing 500lbs of bananas for our food service effort during this three-day event.

This Missions of Mercy effort is all great work. Over three hot July days at the Wise County Fairgrounds, 1,382 patients received dental care valued at $1.5 million. This is dental care that these individuals and families—many of whom are the working poor—wouldn’t normally be able to afford. Wise County is part of the expansive and impoverished rural Appalachian Mountain area. Folks living around here are the working poor, elderly, disabled, or uninsured. When you are struggling to get food on the table, finding money to pay for dental care isn’t realistic. For this reason, the most common procedure was not cleanings or fillings, but extractions. The majority of teeth dentists saw were beyond repair. 3,575 extractions were performed.

Efforts like Missions of Mercy bring out the best in people. The desire to make a difference was contagious and didn’t stop at bananas. All kinds of folks showed up with something to offer, from food to clothes to dental services. My 14-year old daughter came with me and had the great idea to bring 150 dolls, hand-made by and donated from the North Andover Senior Center, to give to waiting children. I was so proud of her, and grateful for the opportunity to expose her to this valuable experience.

The Wise County MOM event left a dramatic impression of the unmet need for health care services. It reaffirmed the importance of having access to insured dental care, and highlighted the many different ways there are to help people.

The Virginia Dental Health Foundation started the Wise County Missions of Mercy (MOM) eleven years ago to "make caring visible." I encourage readers of this blog to get involved -- donate time, money, your voice, or your skills to help people receive vital dental care in your community. There are Missions of Mercy projects in nearly every state throughout the year.

I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to contribute in some small way to this effort. You could say that I’m bananas about MOM events. If you are interested in participating in next year’s Wise County MOM, you can find details on volunteering here.

Our Community Health Champion!

The Boston Business Journal honored Dr. Mark Doherty, Executive Director of the DentaQuest Institute as a 2011 Health Care Champion for his work in expanding the reach of oral health care throughout Massachusett at the 2011 Champions in Health Care breakfast on August 26th.

Dr. Doherty has dedicated his career to expanding access to oral health services for low-income, underinsured and uninsured individuals in Massachusetts and across the country. During a long and illustrious career, Dr. Mark Doherty has been more than a dentist. He has also played the role of businessman, problem solver, oral health advocate, and mentor to other dentists who share his passion for improving the lives of underserved individuals.

When Dr. Doherty speaks about oral health, everyone listens, including lawmakers on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill and federal agencies overseeing community health centers across the United States. Today, Dr. Doherty is working to create partnerships with community health center dental programs and training volunteer dentists who will mentor and coach community health center dental practice staff as they implement improvements to their practices.

Among many honors, Dr. Doherty was selected the 2011 Best Practice Management Consultant by Dr. Bicuspid readers who are dental professionals.

Make oral health a part of the conversation

By Ralph Fuccillo, President, DentaQuest Foundation

In today’s rocky economic climate, community health centers (CHCs) across the country have become the primary source of medical and dental health care for millions of people. In fact, many refer to CHCs as “America’s health safety net.”

Earlier this month, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced awards of $28.8 million to 67 community health center programs across the country. These funds, made available by the Affordable Care Act, will help establish new health service delivery sites to care for an additional 286,000 patients.

As I stated in my last entry, CHCs provide primary health care services to 23 million individuals, most with limited financial resources; however, not all CHCs have the capacity to provide dental care. To give you a sense of the issue: more than 12 million CHC patients do not have access to dental care services.

DentaQuest Foundation has responded to this challenge with the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net Initiative, a $1.75 million investment to strengthen oral health delivery at CHCs across America.

But our investment alone is not enough. According to a recent statement from the American Dental Association (ADA), significant progress with the dental safety net will not occur until the nation places greater emphasis on oral health. We at the DentaQuest Foundation agree. Oral health must be part of the conversation, both at the individual, local community, and government levels.

As the ADA says, “Silence is the enemy. Let’s take the ‘silent’ out of ‘silent epidemic.’”

Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net

By Ralph Fuccillo, President, DentaQuest Foundation

When healthcare reform goes into effect in 2014, nearly every child in the United States will have access to dental benefits coverage, through Medicaid expansion and state exchanges, many for the first time. That is an impressive goal.

But it made us wonder how will the existing oral health care delivery system handle this dramatic volume of new individuals seeking care?

One likely source for care will be America’s health safety net of community health centers. Today, 1,250 Community Health Centers in more than 8,000 communities in 50 states and all U.S. territories provide primary health care services to 23 million individuals, most with limited financial resources. Today, not all CHCs have the capacity to provide dental care. In fact, 12 million+ community health center patients do not have access to dental care services.

Our response to this challenge is the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net Initiative, a $1.75 million investment to strengthen oral health delivery at community health centers across America. This Initiative is providing oral health leadership development and technical assistance to community health centers at the national, state and local levels in three ways:

1) Through a targeted investment, we are partnering with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) to build oral health leadership throughout America’s network of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). NACHC supports its member Primary Care Associations (PCA) and their community health centers with research-based advocacy, training for health center and PCA leadership and boards, and partnerships with key stakeholders to foster the delivery of primary health care services to communities in need. NACHC will now include oral health as part of its education and advocacy work.

2) Through a very competitive Request for Proposal process, the DentaQuest Foundation invested in five state PCAs for the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net Initiative. Each PCA will receive funding for oral health technical assistance and leadership development to support the expansion of oral health at their member community health centers. PCAs are the state-based trade associations of health safety net organizations. They are an important partner because they provide training and continuing education, advocacy, and many other services for their member health centers.

3) Finally, up to 5 community health centers in each participating state PCA will receive direct practice improvement technical assistance to either start a new oral health program or strengthen an existing program, provided (in-kind) by the DentaQuest Institute and its Safety Net Solutions team.

We are very pleased to be working with these five PCAs in the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net Initiative.

• Arizona Association of Community Health Centers
• Georgia Association for Primary Health Care
• Illinois Primary Health Care Association
• Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved
• Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers

Their work will become a model for PCAs in other states.

Remembering John Rossetti, Advisor, Colleague and Friend

Dr. Mark Doherty, Executive Director, DentaQuest Institute

This week, we lost a good friend and oral health champion with the passing of Dr. John Rossetti. John’s life was dedicated to public service and improving the lives of others. He got his first taste of community-level engagement working in rural health in Central America as one of the first “class” of Peace Corps volunteers. After graduating from dental school, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served as a Dental Officer in New Mexico and Thailand, providing dental care in the villages surrounding his base. From there, his commitment to public service lead him to join the Indian Health Service, where as the only dentist for two reservations, he learned valuable lessons in prevention, education, early intervention and restorative services. He passed these lessons along to so many peers and public health professionals throughout the years, and his guidance and tutelage made us better at what we do.

As Chief Dental Officer for the Health Resources and Services Administration, John initiated the first ever partnership between a health agency and Medicaid to address access to oral health services for children. And after ‘retiring’ in 2002, he started a new career as a consultant. It was in 2008 that I had the privilege of welcoming John as one of the DentaQuest Institute’s Safety Net Solutions program’s first Expert Advisors – our elite faculty of experienced public health dentists who are mentoring safety net dental programs across the United States.

Mentoring was in John’s soul. He loved interacting with people and connecting the dots. But more than that, he connected pulses -- helping friends share resources and ultimately have more impact both on the profession and on each other. He made us more effective and he taught us to do it with a smile. John was a genuine Pied Piper. Was there anybody more suited to the dental profession? I cannot imagine what his chair side demeanor must have been like!

John was also the ultimate diplomat. He would warn us -- not about people –always about situations to avoid or at least to consider avoiding before blundering ahead. And, when faced with thorny decisions, John always left us a gap through which we could make a graceful exit if we were not able to go where John wished. John loved to navigate or help navigate the tough situation. I actually believe he preferred the help navigate scenario because he so valued the personal relationship part of the journey. Somewhere, he learned that he could accomplish more of his mission by sharing what he had learned with us. Lucky us!

The last time I talked to John he was very sick. He refused to talk about himself and only wanted to know about me and whether I had followed-up on something he had told me I should do. And, as expected, the follow-up was related to friends. What a guy, so unselfish! Another lesson learned.

It has been an honor and privilege to share a part of this nice man’s life. Jeez! I miss John…. All of us at the DentaQuest Institute will.