By Lynn R. Borup, Executive Director
Tri-County Health Network, Telluride
For the past decade, we’ve been running “Skippy” (San Juan Kids Cavity Prevention Program) – a school-based oral health program that has so far provided more than 5,000 treatments in more than a dozen schools for kids up to age 14. Of the kids we’ve seen, we’ve referred about 35% of them for restorative care.
While we’re making great strides (we’ve reduced the percentage of children who have not seen a dentist in our area by almost 50%, and bridged the gap for uninsured children to receive preventive dental care), barriers persist for children to get full exams and whole restorative care – even if they have insurance.
Our rural, frontier area is a designated Dental Health Professional Shortage Area, both geographically and economically, and we have an insufficient number of dentists who see children, and/or who accept Medicaid/CHP+ and the uninsured. That’s why our preventive program is crucial to ensuring that our kids get seen at last twice a year at school, which helps alleviate the burden on parents in this area to take off work and take their children out of school for a whole day … all to keep an appointment with a faraway dentist.
We’re always looking for ways to improve Skippy – to reach more kids, to provide better care and to
improve health outcomes. That’s why the SMILES Dental Project is really exciting to us, especially the idea of using tele-health. Through SMILES, we now have the ability to provide x-rays and an exam by a dentist at the schools, and we plan to launch a mobile restorative unit.
improve health outcomes. That’s why the SMILES Dental Project is really exciting to us, especially the idea of using tele-health. Through SMILES, we now have the ability to provide x-rays and an exam by a dentist at the schools, and we plan to launch a mobile restorative unit. Once we achieve success with this pilot project, we’ll expand SMILES to more of our needy schools that serve our poorest and most geographically isolated kids. I also see a huge potential to serve our seniors with a mobile unit. So many of our seniors are homebound, and haven’t seen a dentist in a long time – there’s a real need for screenings and cleanings.
Meanwhile, we’re also working to bring dentists on board. In many ways, the SMILES Dental Project is turning the dental profession on its head – so we need to take the time to make sure our dental community feels comfortable and buys into a new oral healthcare delivery system.
Too many dentists will say, “Why do an Interim Therapeutic Restoration if I can just drill and fill?” We hear other excuses, too, like traditional dentists being uneasy about using technology.
To help overcome such misconceptions and barriers to care, we’re working to build trust in our community over time. We’ve implemented a dental advisory committee to keep local dentists informed and aware of what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and why. I like to think of it as creating a community standard of care in which dentists are heard and supported, and have the opportunity to weigh in toward a common goal.
