Improving access to dental care and preventing tooth decay will be the focus of a new grant from Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, which will provide $3.4 million in funding through the next three years to 29 organizations.
The grant will serve 11 rural organizations, 14 urban organizations, and four statewide organizations. Northeast Colorado Health Department has been granted $42,000 per year for three years to sustain and expand their oral health education and services in the region, including in Morgan County.
The funding follows a new mission of equity, Communications Manager Amy Maillet said.
“We learned that what was going to be really impactful was to go out and listen to communities and understand what they felt they needed to reach better oral health solutions in their local areas,” Maillet said.
Northeast Colorado Health Department serves six counties in northeast Colorado. They have goals to serve 500 children from preschool to sixth grade, through school-based oral health services, and additionally to give oral health education and services to birthing classes to at least four delivery hospitals in the area; to integrate the oral health services into their other programs, such as their Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program or specialty health clinics; and to give these oral health services to six community sites, from churches to health fairs, each year.
The ‘oral health services’ they can provide through this grant are preventive, said NCHD Public Health Planning & Grants Specialist Michelle Pemberton said. They include three sections: dental screenings, fluoride treatments, and sealant application for any erupted molars. Though this is all preventive, Pemberton said they will refer anyone screened to someone if they see something of concern.
These services will be free of charge to participants, no matter their income or insurance coverage. The lone restriction is that children will need to get permission from parents.
Most of the dentists in the region are located in Morgan or Logan counties, but “some of our other counties either don’t have dentists or they only have a part time dentist,” Pemberton said.
Along with limited dental offices, not every dentist takes Medicaid or Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+). About 55 percent of children ages 18 years old or younger have Medicaid and almost 10 percent have CHP+, Pemberton said.
“That also creates an access issue,” Pemberton said. “So we see that as a need that we can provide by going to the schools.”
NHCD has tended to visit Morgan county schools in the fall, Logan county in early winter, and Phillips and Sedgwick counties in the spring, Pemberton said.
Pemberton explained why they targeted elementary school-age children, educators, parents and even expecting parents with their oral health education and services.
“If we can set these children up to have good dental hygiene early in their life, then that turns into a lifelong benefit for them,” she explained.
From educating parents in birthing classes to elementary school teachers, the NHCD is attempting to instill positive oral health habits from a young age. Pemberton debunks a common misconception: that baby teeth don’t matter. She explained that a cavity in a tooth carries bacteria.
She continued: “If they get a cavity on a baby tooth that’s next to a permanent tooth that’s just come in, that bacteria can spread.”
For children, she said: “It really impacts their overall health, and the health of their permanent teeth.” She wants parents to know, baby teeth do matter.
Along with the school-based and birthing class services, Pemberton said they’re excited to combine these oral health services with other health services they provide.
“It’s really going to provide a greater scope for our oral health project and sustainability,” she said. “Because dental health does impact our overall health, it is going to provide greater overall health for the residents of northeast Colorado.”
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The foundation said they granted funding toward four organizations that work with oral health across the state. Two were identified through their release: Dental Lifeline Network and One Colorado.
DDCOF said they were providing funds for the Dental Lifeline Network’s ‘Donated Dental Services’ program, to “support the organization’s work to serve more patients who are elderly, disabled or medically fragile.”
Dental Lifeline Network says through their online application that their program is open to people who do not have the income to pay for their dental care and fit one of the following: “have a permanent disability; are elderly: age 65 or older, or qualify as medically fragile.”
Another statewide grantee organization, One Colorado, is working statewide to address oral health outcomes for another population: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Coloradans.
One Colorado’s grant will fund the completion of the analysis of their summer 2018 LGBTQ health survey and the process to share their findings with healthcare providers throughout the state, One Colorado Executive Director Daniel Ramos said.
“One Colorado is the state’s leading advocacy organization for LGBTQ Coloradans and their families. I myself grew up in Northeast Colorado, I actually grew up in Sterling, graduated from Sterling High School,” he said. “For us to continue to do the work to be a statewide organization is incredibly important, knowing that outcomes for rural Coloradans tend to be worse, that there are less resources, less access to the care that people need.”
The goal for the three-year grant is to reach 250 healthcare providers, including oral health care providers, and share their research on oral health disparities faced by the population, Maillet said.
Ramos added: “After we analyze the data, publish a report, and do a public event, the real work begins for us to implement strategies around how we can address oral health with the LGBTQ community.”
The group has not analyzed regional trends in oral health yet.
“We as a statewide organization know that LGBTQ people are living in every corner of our state. They’re living in every county, they’re living in every school district, they’re in every legislative district,” Ramos said. “Our efforts will be focused on, one, talking about the health disparities that exist for LGBTQ Coloradans and their families, and also to really start to advance the message of the Delta Dental Foundation, that oral health plays a large role in overall health.”
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Another funding opportunity could open in May 2019, Maillet said, to include an additional focus area of connecting oral health to overall health. She said the more than 60 applicants of this funding round exposed their foundation to more perspectives, and they look forward to hear from more in the future.
“We’re really eager to cast a wider net, and hear from more communities, and hopefully fund more projects,” Maillet said.
Kara Morgan: kmorgan@fmtimes.com or 970-441-5103
