MyBlack^® Health

Grant to help mitigate disparities in dental care‎

Source: Contra Costa Times

A dental program targeting disadvantaged children expects to serve 3,000 kids and 1,000 pregnant moms in San Bernardino County over a three-year period.
The Oakland-based Dental Health Foundation last week received a $1.2 million grant from First Five San Bernardino to provide care for kids and expectant moms and give educational instruction to parents and would-be parents, said Wynne Grossman, executive director of the Oakland-based Dental Health Foundation.

Much of the free treatment and education, about teeth brushing and diet, will occur in the offices for the San Bernardino County Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program, which includes locations in San Bernardino, Redlands, Chino and Rancho Cucamonga.

Care in the High Desert will likely be in the office of an existing health care provider, not in a WIC office, Grossman said.

To jump-start the program, Grossman said she is in working with Molina Health Care to provide dental services in its San Bernardino County clinics.

Discussions are under way to have Molina's San Bernardino County clinics offer dental care in San Bernardino, Fontana and Ontario, said Kathleen O'Guin, Molina spokeswoman.

"Teeth and gums are an indicator of an individual's overall health. Certain diseases and conditions of the mouth have adverse effects on the rest of the body," said Gloria Calderon, vice president of Molina's California clinic operations.

"While our clinics focus mainly on primary physical health care, we know that oral health and physical health are linked. That's why we're excited to be working with the Dental Health Foundation to provide dental care to our patients," Calderon said.
Grossman said she expected dental services to begin at the Molina clinics in September - if not sooner.

Mixing dental care with basic medical care in this way "will be a first for California, if not the nation," Grossman said.

Meanwhile, a recently published study found nearly 25 percent of children in California have never been to a dentist and disparities exist between races when it comes to length of time between dental care visits.

The study, which was published in the July issue of "Health Affairs," found that Latino and African-American children across all types of insurance were less likely than Asian American and white children to have visited the dentist in the prior six months.

Similarly, Latino and African American children in public insurance programs, including Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), went to the dentist less often than white and Asian American children with the same insurance coverage.

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