Category: Media Coverage

The Denver Post Nathan Martinez is an unusual 9-year-old boy. He actually likes dental care. So he showed no fear at an appointment this month. He calmly walked into a hygienist’s office wearing a red shirt that declared, “You just be yourself and I’ll be awesome,” and plopped onto her reclining chair with a smile.

CPR At a downtown Denver clinic, a skinny 7-year-old with straight black hair named Marlene is getting a pair of fillings. Dr. Patty Braun, a pediatrician and oral health specialist at Denver Health, talks with Marlene about what she drinks, asking if she drinks tap water.

LA Junta Tribune Valley-Wide Health Systems Inc. is now offering a variety of preventive dental health services to pediatric patients during regular medical visits at its La Junta Clinic.

Access to affordable dental care in Routt County has been limited in recent years, but local public health officials are hopeful availability will improve in the coming months. The Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association has hired a dental hygienist to serve low-income patients, including those on Medicaid, something that’s been generally unavailable in recent months.

Our Cavities Get Around Campaign Director, Wyatt Hornsby, was on The Denver Channel during the Dr. Mehmet Oz show. He spoke with Gina Belich about how much sugar is in the juice we give our kids.

Beginning Aug. 17, Kids Dental Hygiene will offer a variety of preventive dental health services for Chaffee County residents, with a specific focus on reaching children, at the Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center Buena Vista Health Center, 28374 County Road 317.

Summit Middle School has been shining smiles this summer. Thanks to start-up funding from a new grant, the Summit Community Care Clinic started providing low-cost preventative dental health care at the school over the summer for the first time. The clinic’s dental hygienists already have treated roughly 200 patients in June and July.

9News reported on the state of children’s oral health in Colorado. Dr. Scott Hamilton, a foundation board member and a pediatric dentist at the Cavity Free at Three Clinic at Children’s Hospital, was interviewed. The article also featured a story about a common scene in the operating room: a family with a child who has severe decay.

With a record 1.1 million people now covered for dental care under Medicaid, the “dental desert” is heating up in Colorado. Deborah Foote, executive director of Oral Health Colorado, provides insight about what solutions oral health advocates in Colorado have been working on to address oral health equity and access to dental care throughout the state.

At Children’s Hospital Colorado alone, more than 3,000 children visited the operating room for dental surgery last year. The cost: $10,000 to $15,000 per case, said Dr. Patty Braun, a pediatrician at Denver Health. CPR’s John Daley reported on dental care and poverty.