What Mission of Mercy Events Say About Our Oral Health System

By Ralph Fuccillo, DentaQuest Chief Mission Officer 

Free care clinics Missions of Mercy (MOMs) and Dental Action Days (DADs) provide critical dental services to thousands of low-income and underserved adults and children throughout the nation every year. 

The first time I attended one of these types of events was in 2009 at a clinic in rural Virginia. It left a dramatic impression. It is impossible to overstate the desperation and gratitude that I saw that weekend. People had driven thousands of miles to wait overnight to get entry into the clinic. I saw a young man in his 20s who had nearly all his teeth pulled out and he was grateful for it because the pain he was in had been so bad. It was a moment when I fully understood what people mean when they say our healthcare system is broken.

The experience motivated me to become involved as a founding board member of the US National Oral Health Alliance and to help create the DentaQuest Foundation’s multi-year Oral Health 2014 initiative, which is cultivating and supporting local oral health leaders and advocates across the U.S. These initiative and the work of many others throughout the country are focused on changing and improving systems– care, community, policy and financing –that can make (or break) a healthy nation.  

The volume of people seeking emergency dental care at these clinics is a painful reminder that too many are falling through cracks in our health system. These clinics are a red flag that our systems are letting people down. Last year, Dr. Terry Dickinson, founder of the Missions of Mercy Project in Virginia, shared his thoughts about these clinics at a gathering of the U.S. National Oral Health Alliance that resonated with me: 

 “Missions of Mercy has allowed me to get in touch with folks who have really struggled to access dental care. If you look at them in line, it’s like there’s an element of hope missing in their faces. They come in with swelling and bleeding and they live with a pain that few of us could tolerate. Since I started the Missions of Mercy Project in 2000, we have provided over 45,000 patients with well over $20.5 million of free dental care. As much as I love what I do, I hate to have to do it. Missions of Mercy is not the solution; and it’s not right that we have to provide care in this manner. So many have lost their future.”

DentaQuest is proud to be a supporter of MOMs and DADs clinics. We provide donations and send volunteers to many clinics annually. Our team in South Carolina will be supporting an event in North Charleston this weekend. Last month, we volunteered, hosted a snack shack for volunteers and provided oral health supplies (toothbrushes, paste, floss, literature) for patients at Virginia Dental Association Foundation’s Wise MOM event in Wise County, Virginia. We really do care about helping people who live in the communities we serve. 

Dental disease is nearly 100 percent preventable-- when people have access to quality care and prevention. Many do not. That’s the challenge we’re working to overcome. 

The Most Common Chronic (Preventable) Childhood Disease

By Dr. Rob Compton, Executive Director, DentaQuest Institute

It always surprises people when I tell them that dental disease is the most common chronic illness of childhood—four times more common than asthma. While most people couldn't imagine a 2 year old with a mouthful of cavities, it is a sad reality for many.  Aggressive dental disease in very young children (1-5 years old) is called Early Childhood Caries (ECC). Typically, children with ECC end up in hospital operating rooms for oral surgery (which often involves anesthesia, root canals and stainless steel crowns). This is a very scary experience for such young children and their families. It’s also upsetting for the dentist to have to do oral surgery on babies. 

Early childhood caries is a significant public health problem. It is caused by bacteria in the mouth. 

The standard treatment is to repair the child’s teeth, usually in the operating room. The problem here is that after this aggressive treatment, many children return within a year with new cavities in their mouths and in need of additional surgery. What is happening is that we’re treating the symptoms of the disease but not fixing the root cause. 

To combat this problem and turn the tide on the spread of ECC, the DentaQuest Institute partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital for Specialty Care in Rhode Island in the Early Childhood Caries (ECC) Collaborative. Our goal has been to add a strong dose of preventive education and disease management to the way we treat these young and vulnerable patients before and after surgery. 

As this video shows, we are piloting this new methodology in hospital-based dental clinics and dental safety net dental programs across the U.S. It is exciting to see that this approach is reducing the need for treatment in the operating room and reducing the return of the disease after surgery.  



We are now recruiting for additional dental programs to join Phase III of this Initiative, as we expand the project to up to 30 sites. They will also test the proven clinical protocols, educational materials and practices from the previous phases. If you are a dental program that would like to participate, please contact us for more information.

I’ll close with a word of advice to parents, grandparents and caregivers:  ECC is largely preventable with dental care and education.  Be sure the children in your life get a first dental checkup soon after their teeth start coming in. Your dentist will alert you to the baby’s risk for dental disease and give you tips on what to do to keep the young teeth healthy. 

We have great hope that through the work of our partners in the Early Childhood Caries Collaborative, we will put an end to childhood’s most common chronic illness!

DentaQuest Joins Oral Health America in Webinar Launch of Fall for Smiles Campaign August 21

By Steven J. Pollock, DentaQuest Chief Operating Officer

In preparation for its upcoming Fall for Smiles® campaign, Oral Health America (OHA) is hosting a webinar to introduce dental professionals and others in the dental industry to the campaign and related collateral. The webinar will take place on Aug. 21 at noon CDT.

DentaQuest is proud to sponsor Oral Health America’s Fall for Smiles communications campaign. The webinar is a nice opportunity for those in the dental industry to familiarize themselves with the campaign and all of the materials OHA provides. DentaQuest has supported the Fall for Smiles initiative since its inception.  The campaign encourages Americans to maintain good oral health through brushing and flossing, visiting the dentist regularly, healthy eating, and avoiding tobacco use. Oral Health America has assembled a library of supporting materials from media kits to activities dental professionals can do with their patients. 

The webinar will also include an introduction to the DentaQuest Institute’s new Online Learning Center. The Online Learning Center is a hub of information for dental professionals on prevention and wellness. Professionals can earn certified education units (CEUs) for completing learning modules on prevention and disease management and the effective management of new safety dental programs. 

To participate in the August 21 webinar please register at the Fall for Smiles webpage.

DentaQuest will also participate in Oral Health America’s Fall for Smiles Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill on September 11, 2013 from 5pm-7pm in the Rayburn House Office Building, Gold Room 2168. DentaQuest CEO Fay Donohue will be discussing the challenge of financing oral healthcare for older adults. All who are interested are welcome to attend and can register by e-mailing amandaganley@dentaltradealliance.org.

Join DentaQuest & Florida Association of Health Plans For Our Aug. 8 Webinar

We are pleased to partner with Florida Association of Health Plans (FAHP) to host a webinar about "Aligning Business Strategy and Dental Benefits to Meet the Needs of Florida's Healthcare Consumer" on Thursday, August 8 at 10AM EST. 

As major pieces of the Affordable Care Act take effect in January 2014, there will be direct and indirect changes to health plans’ business in Florida- and across the nation.

The ACA, among other provisions, is creating opportunities for many children to access dental coverage in the individual and small group health insurance markets, as well as through the new health insurance marketplaces (exchanges), by making pediatric dental and vision services essential health benefits (EHB). According to the National Association of Dental Plans, an estimated 5.3 million children are expected to obtain dental coverage under the ACA. 

The specific benefits in these markets will be determined at the state level. The focus of health plans today is to comply with the essential health benefits requirements outlined by the ACA. Health insurance issuers, government agencies, employers that sponsor self-insured plans and other persons that provide minimum essential coverage to an individual will also need to meet the new data collection and reporting requirements of the ACA. Through this webinar, DentaQuest will:

• Explain how dental data analytics go hand-in-hand with value-based healthcare and regulatory compliance
• Demonstrate how dental management and predictive modeling are essential to success in the exchange environment
• Clarify how collaborative, patient-centric dental care is vital especially in the context of the ACA Beyond 2014

We hope that you can join our speakers Michele Blackwell, DentaQuest Florida Vice President, and Michael Enright, DentaQuest National Director of Sales and Business Development, on August 8 as they talk about how DentaQuest can help Florida health plans align their business strategy and dental benefits to meet the needs of the Florida’s healthcare consumer. 

To register for the webinar, visit here.

The Climbing Trend of Dental-Related ER Visits – Especially Among Young Adults

By Dr. John Luther, DentaQuest Chief Dental Officer

A record number of people are heading to hospital emergency rooms (ERs) when they have an urgent dental need, straining the nation’s health care system and increasing health care costs.

While ERs are equipped to provide pain relief and treat dental infection, few hospitals have dentists available to provide definitive dental care. Most of the time, ER staff are only able to provide a temporary fix, providing patients with prescriptions for pain or antibiotics for infection without diagnosing or resolving the underlying dental issue. This leaves the individual vulnerable to returning to the ER with the same problem or perhaps a more severe problem, which ultimately becomes more costly and painful to treat.

This month, the American Dental Association Health Policy Resources Center (HPRC) released findings which conclude that the number of dental-related ER visits in the United States jumped from 1.1 million in 2000 to 2.1 million in 2010.

According to HPRC’s research, dental ER visits cost the health care system up to $2 billion annually. HPRC found that the increase in cost is primarily driven by young adults, aged 21 to 34 years old, with inadequate dental coverage. During the last decade, decreases in private dental insurance combined with major reductions in adult dental Medicaid coverage have caused young adult dental-related ER visits to skyrocket from 1.5 percent to 3 percent--higher than any other age group.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the HPRC points out, lacks the power to address this rising trend because it does not mandate dental benefits for adults. And, adult dental benefits are not be included in the essential benefit packages that insurance plans will sell through states’ exchanges under the law.

HPRC is calling on policy makers to look at other ways to improve access to dental care for adults, including innovative programs aimed at diverting dental patients from the ERs to community health centers (CHCs) or private dental practices, where they can receive preventive, continuous dental care.

Driven by our mission to improve the oral health of all, DentaQuest supports this approach. We believe that access to prevention-focused dental care is a cost-effective, valuable way to keep health care costs down. Our programs, such as the Strengthening the Oral Health Safety Net Initiative, the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health, and Oral Health 2014, invest in national and community-based actions that engage communities across the country to create conditions for optimal oral health through prevention support and access to oral health care.

In the next decade, I am hopeful that our collaboration with policy makers and other key stakeholders will result in the reversal of this climbing negative trend.

Check Out Our New Infographic

DentaQuest is driven by our mission to improve the oral health of all, to achieve a nation free of dental disease. We strive for a nation where no child suffers from the pain of tooth decay, where adults keep all their teeth for their entire lives and where every person has access to quality dental care.

Although we have seen tremendous improvement in the oral health of Americans, the journey to solving the oral health crisis is far from over. Part of achieving this mission is educating the public about the state of oral health care and access in our nation. As a small part of our efforts, we have created this infographic to spread awareness around oral health.

Did you know:

• Dental disease (cavities) is the most common chronic disease in children. It is five times more common than asthma.

• Every year across the United States, children miss 51 million school hours due to dental problems and visits, and adults lose close to 164 million work hours.

• More than a quarter of all Americans 60 years of age or older have lost all of their teeth.

• It is estimated that in 2010, Americans spent $106 billion dollars on oral care.

• About 1 in 4 non-elderly adults have untreated tooth decay. The rate among low-income adults is twice that for adults with more income (41% versus 19%).

• An estimated 17 million low-income children in America go without dental care each year. This represents about 1 out of every 5 children.

• More than 64 million Americans have moderate to severe forms of periodontal disease.

• Dental disease is nearly 100% preventable.

Any of these facts surprise you? Help us spread the word by sharing this infographic on social media. Feel free to give us a shoutout on Twitter using our handle, @DentaQuest, to join and encourage others to join the oral health online conversation.

Partial Caries Removal is Alternative to Traditional Dental Practices

By Dr. John Luther, DentaQuest Chief Dental Officer

Nicknamed the “father of operative dentistry” in the 1990s, Greene Vardiman Black (more commonly known as GV Black) advocated that all dentin, or the tissue that surrounds a tooth, where decay is present should be removed.
 
However, recently new evidence published in a study in the Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry contradicts this dental tradition. This recent study reveals evidence that partial caries removal may be more beneficial for both the patient and practitioner.

Co-authors Daniel Chan, DMD, a professor and the associate dean of clinical services at the University of Washington School of Dentistry, and William Browning, DDS, a professor in the department of restorative dentistry at the Indiana School of Dentistry, cited several studies that support the belief that the complete removal of all the affected dentin in deep carious lesions leads to pulp exposure, complex and higher-cost treatment, and, possibly, extraction. It also suggests that creating a sealant barrier is just as effective as total removal, but with more advantages. The approach is supported by numerous clinical trials and systematic reviews, which is decidedly rare for operative dental procedures.

This study provides great insight for dentists nationwide. At DentaQuest, we support new innovative research, like the study mentioned above, that challenges and improves overall dental care. We want to help oral health care providers improve their practice to emphasize prevention and disease management. We identify promising strategies for quality improvement and, working with clinical partners, provide technical assistance to accomplish the goal.

We look forward to new research that helps transform the dental industry and ultimately how dental care is delivered.