Dentistry is Health Care That Works! My View

Exploring: Preventive Care

My View: Dentistry is Health Care That Works!

By Carter Brown, DMD We should all be proud of the Dental Profession’s commitment to Preventive Care. Dentistry has always been about prevention and getting the patient healthy and then working together to keep them that way. With Congress and others in Washington and locally looking to change health care, I would hope that those of us in dentistry will be consulted on how to do it. Our ratio of 80% general practice to 20 % specialty is the kind of mix that really brings care to the mainstream. Medicine is 20% family practice and 80% specialties. They are fractionated and have trouble with continuity of care.

South Carolina, like all our neighboring states, has worked for years to improve the utilization of dental services for all of our citizens. Several years ago, the SCDA utilized a Robert Woods Johnson Grant to test the concept of Patient Navigators. These

individuals lived in communities where the citizens under utilized the dental services available. The Navigators were from Churches and community groups and were trained very simply in basic hygiene and oral health concepts. They were able to know who in the community needed care, helped them to set up appointments and made sure they kept the appointments. The program was very successful, very cost effective and helped bypass many of the barriers that kept people from utilizing the care available.

SCDA President Jim Mercer has brought the concept full circle this year and is introducing a Community Oral Health Coordinator who will function in much the same way. This time we hope to use School Nurses as one source of identifying children who are in need, and then the COHC can work with the families to get them established in a dental home and get the care they need.

President Obama signed into law a massive expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) on February 4, 2009. Containing eight specific dental provisions, the legislation makes several significant changes relative to general dentistry. One of these changes:

We should all be proud of the Dental Profession’s commitment to Preventive Care.

In this photo: Dr. Sprogis over sees MUSC senior, Greenville tech assisting, and hygiene students.

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Dental Explorer | Second Quarter 2009

Explore the potential for interdisciplinary approaches, peer counselors, community health workers, and pediatric oral health educators to engage in activities that prevent and control tooth decay but do not repair cavities.

The SCDA COHC is a perfect fit for this by using Community Health Workers to facilitate the optimal scenario of patients getting comprehensive care from fully trained dentists. When the patients have dental homes and regular care, the statistics quickly look positive.

It appears that dentists are going to have to be out front and creative to help this population help themselves. The Government solutions all too often misunderstand the dynamics and reasons why some people don’t get the care that is available. We need to be as active as we can be in all manner of projects in order to show the policy makers we want to help, we have the answers, and we want to partner with them in deciding the way to go. When “Give Kids a Smile” or “Children’s Dental Health Month” or “Missions of Mercy” projects occur, you can say, “Let them handle it.”

That doesn’t fly any more. You ARE “them”, and if we all do not participate and be part of the solution, the policy makers will have an impact on the quality and appropriateness of Oral Health Care, maybe forever.

In this photo: Dr. Bray consults with MUSC senior.

We are getting ready to hold our first “Missions of Mercy” project in South Carolina. We have chosen to follow North Carolina and call the event a “DAD” project, or, “Dental Access Days”. None of the charity efforts can treat all the need, but any treatment rendered is a blessing for all involved. These events help the dental community to highlight the issue so that the policy makers gain a better sense of the value of the care and willingness of the dentists to participate.

We are also in our first year of a wonderful project. We have senior dental students working in the Greenville Technical College dental clinic. They are providing comprehensive care, and giving the Dental Assistant students an ongoing chance to work Chairside in school from day one. They are also helping the Hygiene students

understand the concept of team care, which also allows the dental students to not only refine their skills but also helps define their hearts for caring for the population that seeks care less often. This is all self funded. Dr. Dana Parker from Greenville Tech and a dozen local dentists serve as adjunct faculty for MUSC and take time from their practices to serve as faculty during the clinic times.

Many specialists in the area also work with the students, and there is a van, which rotates to 20 different sites in the community providing screenings and care. We hope that this model, of using existing resources to make a big difference, will be repeated across the Southeast.

Dr Brown is a 1982 Graduate of the Medical University of South

He currently serves as the Trustee for Region 19 of the AGD

Carolina College of Dental Medicine and has a General Dentistry

and is one of the authors of the AGD’s National White Paper on

practice in Greenville South Carolina.

Access.

He is the Immediate Past President of the South Carolina Dental

Dr. Brown also serves on the ADA Council on Communications

Association and is a Fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry,

and is Chair for the SCDA’s first MOM project in August. Last

the American College of Dentists, the International College of

September, Dr. Brown helped create a rotation for senior MUSC

Dentists, and the Pierre Fauchard Academy.

Dental Students to the Greenville Tech Dental clinic to provide

Dr. Brown has been the South Carolina statewide chair for

comprehensive care at no cost.

Give Kids a Smile and also for Children’s Dental Health Month,

Dr. Brown and his wife Katie live on a 100 acre farm where he

winning the ADA’s Sam Harris Award for the best CDHM in the

and Katie operate a commercial cut flower business which

country.

wholesales to three states. Their clients include Wholefoods and

He has served on the ADA’s District 16 Delegation for 5 years,

USA Bouquet, which services WalMart and Sam’s Clubs for the

was the chair for the Southern Leadership Conference two years

region.

ago, and was part of Dr. Ron Tankersley’s Campaign Committee last year.

This article has been published in the Atlanta Dental magazine, the Dental Explorer - Second Quarter 2009. April 1, 2009 - June 30, 2009.

Dental Explorer | Second Quarter 2009

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