Commentary: Don’t brush off dental needs of county’s children

No child should enter kindergarten with untreated tooth decay, but all too often in Orange County that is the case.

When left untreated, cavities can lead to changes in speech, loss of focus in school and unnecessary pain. Orange County takes pride in being health-conscious, so it’s surprising that 1 in 10 of its schoolchildren has never visited a dentist.

As a mother of three young boys, I understand. Between swimming, music lessons, soccer games, Scouts and all the other activities we have our children involved in, it’s easy to forget about their teeth. Considering our fast-paced lifestyles, the average American diet is largely carbohydrate-based and high in simple sugars. There has never been a better time for our kids’ teeth to take center stage.

In the dental community, we need champions like the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, which has provided more than $30 million over the past decade for the prevention of childhood tooth decay through its Oral Health Initiative. The commission’s efforts are encouraging.

A portion of that funding is used to support Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, a local nonprofit organization that unites community dental clinics to provide education and treatment to more than 19,000 children and 8,000 of their family members annually.

The Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County pediatric dental clinic opened in 2005. Since then, it has expanded to better serve the community through the use of two mobile vans and the establishment of a smaller clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, which primarily treats children with special healthcare needs.

Also, Healthy Smiles has partnered with the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC to be a training ground for inspiring community-conscious, specialty dentists. So far, it has graduated 63 pediatric dentists who currently reside in Southern California (eight have opened practices in Orange County).

Healthy Smiles has made a significant impact on our community.

In 10 years, visits to Healthy Smiles clinics are up 528%, achieving an all-time high of 3,556 visits in 2014. The mobile vans have provided outreach and preventive services to more than 500 sites, from elementary schools and day-care centers to health fairs and WIC centers. WIC is the federally funded health and nutrition program for women, infants and children.

The average age of a child’s first visit to a dentist in Orange County has dropped from 5 years to 2, which is closely approaching the American Academy of Pediatrics’ goal of the first dental visit by age 1.

Additionally, the commission funds school-readiness nurses, who conduct almost 10,000 dental screenings each year, provide parent and caregiver oral-health education and refer children for dental services as needed. Most of the children treated at Healthy Smiles live in households with incomes at or below the federal poverty level.

Today, Orange County’s participation rate (49%) of children 5 and under in the Denti-Cal program — a benefit under California’s Medi-Cal — who received at least one preventive visit within the past year is the highest in the state. The commission’s outreach has been effective. But there is more work to be done. Several challenges remain, from a workforce shortage to low reimbursement rates for service and family barriers to accessing care.

A 2013 study by the California-based independent group Children Now found that Orange County had one pediatric dentist for every 1,242 children under 6 years old. Later that year, a Healthy Smiles survey showed that most of those dentists stopped taking Denti-Cal patients after their reimbursement rates were reduced by 10%. California has one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation; only Rhode Island and Minnesota are lower.

The commission and Healthy Smiles are actively working to increase these low rates for dentists who serve our youngest and most vulnerable population. Today, there is one pediatric dentist for every 4,900 children with Denti-Cal insurance in Orange County.

That’s why the funding provided by the Children and Families Commission of Orange County is so important. More than 230,000 young children live in Orange County and need access to quality pediatric dental care. There needs to be a more robust workforce of pediatric dentists, and low-income children need more access to quality dental care.

Just as important, families have to realize the vital need to get their pre-school-age children to see a dentist. As more dentists become available, wait times will come down and trips to the dentist will become a more regular part of a child’s life.

So much pain and lost school hours can be avoided if we raise awareness. Cavities are not something a child should take to school.

KONITA WILKS is dental director for Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County.