February is National Children’s Dental Health Month – a month of observance that brings to the forefront the small practices and daily habits that are within reach of children and their families to keep their teeth and mouths healthy. Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation invests nearly $1 million a year in oral health prevention programs across the […]
Category: Blog
2023 Legislative Session – Another Opportunity to Advance Oral Health Equity
- Theresa Anselmo
- Blog
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation knows that achieving lasting oral health improvements requires advocacy and changes at a policy level. As part of our commitment to helping all Coloradans achieve their optimal oral health, we engage individuals and communities experiencing oral health inequities and disparities to identify and understand the root causes of structural and […]
Delta Dental Institute Medical-Dental Integration Models Report
- Veronica Contreras de Raya
- Blog
There is a well-demonstrated relationship between systemic and oral health. More than 90% of all systemic diseases can be linked to oral health such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia. Because of this critically important link, the integration of medical and dental care is crucial for overall patient health. In the medical-dental integration (MDI) model, […]
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation 2022 Grantees
- Social Media Collaborative
- Our Mission, Blog
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation (DDCOF) announced nearly $11 million in grants to more than 40 organizations working across the state to ensure all Coloradans have access to oral health care. The foundation awarded funds to organizations working within its three initiatives to address the root causes of oral health care inequity: prevention and preventive […]
School Dental Visits Provide Care for Young Patients: Tepeyac Community Health Center
- Veronica Contreras de Raya
- Blog, Oral Health Care Access
School dental visits are critical for Colorado’s youth. A large percentage of them don’t have a dental home, and the only time they may be able to see a dentist is during school hours. Concerns surrounding transportation, communication, or finances can stand between these children and regular dental care. Whatever the barrier, school-based dental services help to bridge this gap, and Tepeyac Community Health Center provides a myriad of preventive services that help identify children with urgent dental needs. This helps the children and their families obtain additional support in an effort to get them connected to further treatment.
Tepeyac Community Health’s team conducts yearly visits to local schools. During their spring visit to Swansea and Garden Place elementary schools, they saw about 110 kids in about 5 days. Many of the kids remembered the Tepeyac team’s visit from the fall, and most who had anxiety or required a lot of patient management were excited to see them this time!
One little girl in particular, a 3-year-old in the ECE program, wouldn’t even open her mouth during her consult in the fall. Instead, the team showed her their equipment and demo’ed brushing and flossing on a dinosaur model. Fast forward a school year and she jumped into the dental chair and said, “Mira mis dientes!” (“Look at my teeth!”) with a huge smile on her face. She remembered the team from the fall and said she had been working on brushing at home. So even though they couldn’t complete her exam in the fall, she was more than ready to see them 6 months later!
Grant funding from Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation allows Tepeyac Community Health Center to significantly expand its capacity to provide comprehensive preventive and restorative oral health services to Tepeyac’s patient population – many of whom have had to forego oral healthcare due to a wide range of barriers.
2022 Open Funding Grant Opportunity: Getting to the Root of Oral Health Inequity
- Veronica Contreras de Raya
- Blog, Dental Health, Foundation
At Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, we remain committed to our mission of advancing oral health equity for all Coloradans. This work is as important as ever as new data highlights how COVID-19 has significantly reduced access to and utilization of oral health care, damaging the oral health care infrastructure and workforce. This year, we […]
A New Chapter for the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation
- Adeeb Khan
- Our Mission, Blog, Investment, Dental Health, Foundation
At Delta Dental of Colorado, commitment to community is in our DNA. We prioritize doing the right thing and finding ways to make our communities thrive. Our work brings together the philanthropy of the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation and the corporate social responsibility practice of Delta Dental of Colorado. Since March of 2020, much […]
Oral Health Policy and Innovation Shine in a Year of Darkness
- Megan Wilson
- Our Mission, Blog, Dental Health, Foundation
In so many ways, the past year was filled with darkness, and public health dentistry was in the center of this darkness. With the exception of emergency care, dental fully shut down for a long period of time, followed by a very slow return to providing dental care. Dental offices were shuttered, staff furloughed, and patients […]
Working Together to Eliminate Food Insecurity
- Adeeb Khan
- Blog, Dental Health, Foundation
According to Hunger Free Colorado, one in three Coloradans struggle with hunger — a sobering statistic considering the vast amount of wealth in our country. And the pandemic has only exacerbated the issue of food insecurity. In conversations with local food pantries throughout the past year, I repeatedly heard stories about the increased demand for […]
Advancing children’s oral health through innovation
- Delta Dental Foundation
- Blog, Dental Health, Foundation
“A crown? But she’s not even five,” I responded to the dentist in disbelief as I sheepishly wrapped my arms around my daughter. We brush morning and night with fluoridated toothpaste, have regular, preventive dental appointments, and she had four fluoride varnish applications before the age of 3. I work for Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation (DDCOF) and […]
