Orange County’s $12 million funding brings dentists to school

The Children and Families Commission of Orange County is set to receive a significant boost with a $12.2 million grant to enable a further rise in school and classroom dental visits.

With tooth decay being the most prevalent recurrent disease leading to a yearly loss of 51 million school hours, young school children can just walk to another classroom in their school for a dental check-up and teeth cleaning rather than traveling outside their campus. The grant provided by the California Department of Health Care Services will expand teledentistry services in the next few years and cut down visits to dental office by children who have a risk for cavities and can’t access such care.

“I think it’s easier here,” said 10-year-old Genesis Garcia who was in a fifth-grade Math class but left for her dental appointment and returned to class with a bag of oral health products and a timer for the two-minute tooth brushing routine. Within 48 hours of her visit, a pediatric dentist from the nonprofit Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County Healthy Smiles will analyze the X-rays and photos from Genesis’s exam and recommend if she requires a follow up with a dentist. Her parents will also be kept informed about the visit, reported Orange County Register.

As per the nonprofit, one out of three children in Orange County suffer from untreated tooth decay, and one out of 10 children in the country have never seen a dentist. The funding will help expand the teledentistry program of the nonprofit to an impressive 80 schools from just three schools in Santa Ana and Anaheim. The organization will also absorb the cost incurred by community health centers for training and technology to organize teledentistry appointments conducted by a dental staff.

But the at-school dental program has generated debate as mobile appointments can lead to students missing on classroom time. Dr. Richard Mungo, a founder of Healthy Smiles and a pediatric dentist, disagreed, and said that dental care with a focus on prevention, in the long-term, will lead to considerably more time spent in school. Research also suggests that children with poor oral health are likely to experience pain, miss school, and not do well in school. “If a child misses 45 minutes of class, it’s better than missing two or three days with an abscess,” said Mungo.

Students who are enrolled in Denti-Cal, Medicaid’s program for families with low-income, can avail of this program after parental authorization—with about a third of Danbrook’s children already signing up. And up to one-third of these children required restorative work during a follow-up appointment at the Garden Grove clinic of Healthy Smiles. Over time, through consistent care, this number is likely to come down.

Support for the program comes from Dr. Paul Glassman at the University of the Pacific’s dental school where he is the director of community oral health and also oversees training for Orange County’s program. Dr. Glassman said that six-year data from another teledentistry project revealed that a hygienist’s direct care could keep two-thirds of children healthy.

He also added that such programs would bring down financial barriers due to low reimbursement, which makes dentists stop accepting patients coming via Denti-Cal. “You have dentists who are not willing to do it in a normal dental office who are willing to do this,” Glassman said. “As this system has been initially tested and is now starting to grow, in 20 years, this is going to be a very widespread and important part of dental care.”