State of the CDA Foundation

Richard Graham, DDS

It has been a challenging two years. As CDA members, we are all too aware that providing dental care to patients since March 16, 2020, has changed significantly. All of us must share a sense that our profession will never be the same — another one of those seminal events that reshapes our lives in countless ways. As current chair of the CDA Foundation Board of Directors, I have been asked to share some insight as to our activities, some that have been profoundly affected by the SARS- CoV-2 pandemic and others that have continued with little or no interruption.

The CDA Foundation was founded in 2001 with the primary mission to improve the oral health of Californians by supporting the dental profession in its efforts to meet community needs. To that end, a number of programs have been established over the succeeding years:

■ The Student Loan Repayment Grant helps new graduates reduce their indebtedness in exchange for a commitment to practice in underserved areas. To date, 22 dentists have been awarded this grant.

■ In partnership with the University of California, San Francisco, research was funded and published in the effort to manage caries risk through assessment procedures, also known as CAMBRA.

■ In partnership with Henry Schein Cares, the Foundation has established the Dental Materials and Supplies Grant. Nonprofit organizations are recipients of this award and receive dental supplies that help provide dental care in underserved communities.

■ In a combined effort with the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry, the Foundation created the Pediatric Oral Health Access Program for underserved children. This program has evolved into the Treating Young Kids Everyday (TYKE) program, an online course designed to increase dentists’ confidence to see babies and young children and inspire a commitment to decreasing the prevalence of dental caries in California’s children. The program is available online at cda.org and has been completed by approximately 5,900 dental professionals.

■ To help meet the needs of our dependent seniors, the Foundation developed and successfully piloted the Geriatric Oral Health Access Program to test an innovative model of care in which registered dental hygienists in alternative practice (RDHAP) partnered with facility dentists to perform assessments, develop oral health treatment plans and deliver appropriate hygiene protocols to improve the oral health services provided to residents in long-term care facilities.

■ In response to natural disasters, including the devastating wildfires that have wracked colleagues up and down the state, the Foundation has distributed funds to dental professionals whose homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.

■ Most recently, Foundation relief efforts have included providing a portal for member donations to be collected and delivered to our colleagues and their patients in Ukraine. The most visible example of

Foundation efforts has been the creation of the CDA Cares program. The first CDA Cares event was held in 2012 and has been repeated at rotating venues across the state. To date, CDA Cares has provided over $25 million dollars in oral health care with more than 30,000 individuals receiving treatment. Along with the delivery of care to individuals in need, the events have also drawn media and public attention to the plight of the underserved. As a result, policymakers in Sacramento have addressed issues like adding adult Medi-Cal dental benefits back into the state budget.

On a personal note, my involvement with the CDA Foundation began in 2014 when I was asked to volunteer at a CDA Cares event in Vallejo, California. My assignment was to help manage a relatively small group of volunteers who would medically screen potential CDA Cares patients prior to receiving treatment. It was an unforgettable experience — so many patients, so many volunteers and so much activity. Those of you who have volunteered can relate. For those of you who haven’t volunteered, please consider getting involved with the Foundation efforts at any level — you will be amazed at how good it feels.

In conjunction with the Harbor Dental Society, the Foundation was preparing to host a CDA Cares event in Long Beach in July 2020; however, the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the spring of 2020 put a halt to any event that would bring together the number of individuals that we see at a typical event. While we continue to evaluate the option of returning to a large-scale event, we have been refocusing our efforts on delivering care to individuals in need through utilizing small venues where we can mitigate risk for patients and volunteers alike.

However, additional opportunities to improve public health have arisen. The Foundation received a $1 million dollar grant to facilitate increasing COVID-19 and flu vaccine confidence among dental professionals and patients. With the help of CDA, the Foundation helped to establish a vaccine confidence toolkit and provided several webinars for dentists interested in volunteering at mass vaccination sites and, more recently, offering flu and COVID-19 vaccines in office.

Other funding has helped our efforts. Notably, the Foundation received a $3 million dollar grant to help deliver care via CDA Cares and current alternative efforts as we wait for a return to a large event format. In addition, funding from the Delta Dental Foundation has allowed the creation of the Smile Crew CA dental assisting bootcamp program to assist with workforce development.

We are also looking at ways to focus Foundation efforts on the changing health care landscape in California. Due in part to the way awareness of CDA Cares events have impacted state lawmaker budget priorities, we are no longer in the same landscape we once were over a decade ago. Significant ongoing investments have been made in the Medi-Cal Dental Program — a state oral health director and office of oral health were created and dental coverage is more available to those eligible for safety net programs. While the need for dental care persists, the Foundation is at a precipice in its strategic planning process to prioritize how it can invest its programmatic resources in health equity initiatives to expand provider ability to treat broader patient bases that historically have been underserved including Black and Hispanic communities, individuals with special health care needs and patients living in more remote areas of the state.

We will continue to look at other alternative ways to fulfill the Foundation’s mission on a scale that can be managed safely. Utilizing existing facilities with volunteers and resources are interim solutions that we are pursuing as well as looking for less traditional ways to provide assistance.

Lastly, I want to thank all of those individuals who have contributed to the Foundation’s efforts from the beginning, either through donations of time, money or supplies. A great number of people have participated in bringing aid and relief to the people of California through the years by assisting the CDA Foundation as directors and volunteers at the state and local level. I am but one volunteer in a long line who has contributed to the evolution of the

Foundation to make it what it is today. I have had the pleasure of meeting and volunteering with many of you over the last few years. I want you to know that the good deeds continue, and we will always strive to fulfill the charitable mission — regardless of the detours that cause us to pause and pivot.

Richard Graham, DDS, is the chair of the CDA Foundation Board of Directors. A leader in the dental community, his service includes membership on the CDA Board of Trustees and CDA Practice Support Workgroup. He has actively served in various capacities on the Foundation’s board since 2018. Dr. Graham is a general dentist practicing in Rohnert Park, California.