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| Crystal Mecham attends to a patient at Bea Underwood Elementary School in Parachute, a SMILES site |
The first Interim Therapeutic Restoration (ITR) permit in Colorado was issued by the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) to Crystal Mecham, a Registered Dental Hygienist with Mountain Family Health Centers – a grantee of the SMILES Dental Project®. Today, Crystal shares with us her perspective on how her new training has expanded her skills-set, how it positively impacts her patients, how it helps Mountain Family Health Centers achieve its care goals – and why we need to change the way we think about disease prevention and treatment:
I first heard about the SMILES Dental Project® when I started working at Mountain Family Health Centers two years ago. I love the concept, and I’m thrilled to be working in community health, which has been a longtime goal for me.
After three years in public health, it was important to me to expand my function, and to go further in how I serve my patients. Working and living in Colorado, there’s so much support from different organizations and associations to do just that: to expand your scope of practice as a dental hygienist. In particular, SMILES is poised to make a significant impact in local communities where patients don’t have the ability to come to us – especially children and their parents – but we can go to them.
The passage of the ITR bill in Colorado is a huge victory for expanding oral health in Colorado – a victory that makes sense. What’s challenging, though, is change itself – especially in the field of healthcare, both medical and dental. But when you’re open-minded, and when you do your research, it’s easy to conclude that expanding the role of dental hygienists is really going to benefit patients who receive care at extended sites in community settings, also providing them the opportunity for continuity of care.
At the clinic, I don’t see the same patients with the regularity we’d like. For some families, it’s not in the cards to bring in their children every six months on recall – more likely, I might see them every year-and-a-half or so. Being onsite at their schools, however, makes things so much easier for families in the communities we serve. It’s much more convenient to establish six-month recalls, and we can shorten recalls to three months, if needed.
When we establish ongoing relationships with families, we can also better consider other factors that influence oral health, and overall health – everything from dietary habits to helping address specific home situations. We can tailor treatment, recall and patient awareness to meet the needs of each family, each child.
We also aim to make things as expedient as possible for the schools we work with – we don’t want to inconvenience anyone. That’s why we provide the school secretary a list of kids we want to see a week in advance, so she can coordinate when we see them, and to ensure that we’re not interfering with school schedules and programming.
For Mountain Family Health Centers, the SMILES Dental Project® – and the related expansion of dental hygienists’ ability to provide care – aligns with our long-term goal of helping to change the quality of life in our communities…from Avon, Basalt and Edwards, to Glenwood Springs and Rifle.
It’s heartbreaking when a child shows up with a tooth that’s no longer salvageable due to decay. And it’s sad when little ones have to endure very expensive – and often painful – dental treatments. Our goal is to change that by establishing rapport with patients in community settings, encouraging routine visits, helping patients better understand home care, and seeing the resulting ripple effects of knowledge transfer.
That’s why I’m such a fan of ITRs, too. It’s exciting to have the ITR permit, and to have the option to provide ITR services when needed.
SMILES is a game-changer that challenges the traditional model for providing dental care. It’s a move toward patient-centric care, replacing a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach to care: when you’re on a prevention or treatment program that’s tailored to help you and address your specific needs, it may look very different than that of your friends or neighbors. At the heart of SMILES is asking, “What can we do for you? How can we help you? What are your unique concerns?” And that’s exactly the direction in which healthcare should be going, especially oral healthcare.
I can’t wait to see the impact that SMILES will have in changing behaviors, attitudes and how we deliver care. Times are changing and healthcare needs to change, too. It’s important to adapt and move forward, and to keep up with technology. In this profession, it’s also imperative to be engaged, and to set high goals and standards.
Every community comprises low-, medium- and high-income individuals and families. And that’s why the SMILES model eventually stands to benefit every community in our state.
In December 2016, the SMILES Dental Project® sponsored ITR training – conducted by faculty of the Community College of Denver – and graduated 19 RDHs, including six from partner organizations. Since then, we’ve worked with the dental hygienists to complete the application, provided sample forms for the required notarized statements, and worked with DORA to explain and clarify the permit process. Click here to view and complete the Application for Approval to Place Interim Therapeutic Restorations form. For questions or assistance with the ITR permit process, contact Halie Peterson, haliepeterson@afl-enterprises.com.
