There are, among low-income children and adults throughout Utah, a significant  number of individuals with unmet dental needs.  Low-income people have higher rates of untreated oral health problems than moderate or high-income people. Low-income families are frequently uninsured or underinsured for dental care without discretionary funds to pay for care, thus creating an insurmountable barrier to accessing oral health care. 

 

     In Utah, this translates to over 1.6 million work hours and 500,000 school hours lost each year due to dental related illness.   Poor oral health may impair the ability of low-income adults to find work or perform in their jobs. Furthermore, for more than one in four children, the trip to the emergency  room is their first "dental visit".

 

     The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) Family Dental Plan operates six clinics across the state. Paid staff and volunteers treat clients enrolled in several public assistance programs, including Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) and the Primary Care Network (PCN).

 

     The most common services provided at the clinic are checkups, x-rays, and cleanings, as well as fluoride treatments, sealants, fillings, root canals, extractions and dentures. Staff also performs hundreds of dental screenings for children in Head Start programs.

 

     "In years past, many of the clients who came to us already had extensive decay," said Dentist Dean Troili, D.D.S. "Today, since we focus so heavily on prevention, we're able to keep more of our child and adult patients from developing severe oral health problems - the kind of problems that lead to surgery, extractions and other extreme treatments," he said.

 

     The Family Dental Plan also operates a mobile clinic in harder-to-reach rural areas of the state. Some of the sites served in 2006 included Ibapah, Enterprise, Eureka, Blanding and Junction/Circleville. Providers used the mobile clinic to reach many children in migrant Head Start programs.

 

      The states' six Family Dental Plan clinics are in: Ogden (this clinic has recently moved to bigger offices and expanded its staff), Layton, Provo, Salt Lake City, St. George and West Valley City.

 

     For more information on all Family Dental Plan clinics, call Bruce Murray  at 801-538-7017

or 801-232-2386.

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THE CONNECTION/march 2007     ISSUE#9