Dental Health

Come Learn About an Innovative Model to Bring Dental Care to Children in Preschool Settings

The Virtual Dental Home creates a community-based oral health delivery system in which people receive preventive and simple therapeutic dental services in community settings. The system of care utilizes the latest technology to link practitioners in the community with dentists at remote office sites. 

6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Program starts at 6:30
Download the agenda here. 

West Los Angeles College – HLRC Building
9000 Overland Ave.
Culver City, CA 90230

RSVP by May 1, 2013. Space is limited.
Please email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or call (310) 260-1220 to speak with Karen Anthony.

This event is free. Hors d'oeuvres and drinks will be provided.

Three CE credits will be provided by the University of the Pacific.

This project is funded, in part, by First 5 LA

California Health Report

Concern over accessibility to dental care for children on Medi-Cal brings to surface the need for alternative solutions to increase access. "One of the solutions is to bring dental care to children where they are," says Kattlove. "School-based programs are very successful in addressing access issues."

Read the full article here . 

Jenny Kattlove, Director, Strategic Health Initiatives presented "Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage:  Half of California's Kids Depend On It" to the San Luis Obispo Children's Oral Health Coalition, San Luis Obispo, CA. 

Download slides from the presentation here. (pdf)

EdSource

Findings from TCP's Dental Brief, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage: Half of California Kids Depend On It, are highlighted in this article to support the need for schools to provide a dental health safety net. As acces to dental care through Medi-Cal remains an obstacle for low-income children, dental problems keep these kids out of school and affects school performance. 

Download the article here.

Jenny Kattlove, Director, Strategic Health Initiatives presented "Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage:  Half of California's Kids Depend On It" at the Maternal and Child Health Access monthly meeting on March 21, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Download slides from the presentation here. (pdf)

HealthyCal.org

California needs to act now to prevent a severe dental crisis. “School based programs are very successful in addressing access issues,” says Kattlove. Also, training other medical professionals in preventative oral care and introducing innovations such as teledentistry are alternate solutions offered.  

Download the article here. 

Chico News & Review

Read the full article here. 

Lamorinda Weekly

Wendy Lazarus describes the lack of access to dental care for children in Medi-Cal. 

Download the full article here.

California Heathline

The Children's Partnership report, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage: Half of California's Kids Depend on It, supports the need for no-cost clinics.

Download the full article here.

California Healthline

Download the full article here. 

California Healthline

"California's Medi-Cal dental system is already struggling to serve children and is unprepared for what's to come," said Wendy Lazarus, founder and co-president of The Children's Partnership. "California's kids deserve real access to quality dental care -- not a false promise of it," Lazarus said in a statement accompanying the recent issue brief, "Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage: Half of California's Kids Depend On It."

Download the full article here.

Huffington Post

Recent changes affecting California's dental care system could worsen access to dental care for hundreds of thousands of children.  In this blog, Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children's Partnership lays out an action plan to strengthen Medi-Cal's dental program for children. "The challenges laid out provide the opportunity for California to strengthen the system for everyone. It will require a lot of cooperation and political will to make these changes. TCP calls on the governor, legislators, and the public to ensure that California's most vulnerable kids will not be lost in the shuffle and left without the dental care they need," says Lazarus.

Our latest report on the dental crisis is available here. 

California's Children, by HSMC 

Download full article here.

New America Media

TCP released a report  on the crisis faced by many families whose children depend on Medi-Cal for their dental care. Jenny Kattlove, the author of the issue brief, is TCP’s Director of Strategic Health Initiatives. 

“The state has said that they feel there are enough dental providers, except for a few small counties … But, the program is not up to par. It can’t currently meet the needs of its enrollees, let alone those of a million new children,” Kattlove says.

Download the full article here.

California Healthline

TCP report, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage, highlights that "children currently enrolled in Medi-Cal are not receiving needed dental care. According to the report, nearly half of beneficiaries under age 21 who are enrolled in Denti-Cal -- a Medi-Cal dental program -- did not receive a dental check-up or treatment in 2011. The report found that a major factor in the lack of dental care was that relatively few dentists accept Medi-Cal patients."

Download the full press clip here. 

By Jenny Kattlove | January 2013

Medi-Cal’s dental program will soon provide dental services to about 50 percent of California’s children. Yet, the program has proven to be inadequate to meet their needs. This Issue Brief spotlights stories of children enrolled in Medi-Cal trying to access dental care. The Brief highlights the challenges facing Medi-Cal in providing dental care to children, examines the State’s efforts to address these problems, and provides an action plan to help the program serve its growing number of enrollees. 

Download the Issue Brief
Download the Press Statement 

--To read more stories of families who have struggled to access needed dental care for their children, visit Meet the Children Behind the Issue.
--To read about TCP’s efforts to improve the oral health of California’s underserved children, please visit Dental Health Agenda for Children.

DrBicuspid.com

The Children's Partnership (TCP) has released an issue brief and action plan addressing the challenges Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, faces in providing dental care to children in the state. The issue brief also stresses the impact that newly enrolled children will have on the state's strained dental care system.

Download the article here.

"It's a public health issue" according to Jenny Kattlove, Director of Strategic Health Initiatives. "A large number of California children do not have dental coverage at all. About 1.8 million of them in public coverage are not getting the dental care they need. One reason is that the reimbursement rate for dentists is very low, close to the lowest in the nation, and in California there are Medi-Cal administrative barriers providers face.

Download the full article here .

Santa Monica, CA– Today, The Children’s Partnership released an issue brief and action plan addressing the challenges Medi-Cal faces in providing dental care to children in California. The issue brief, Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage: Half of California Kids Depend On It, also stresses the impact that newly enrolled children will have on the state’s strained dental care system. “California’s Medi-Cal dental system is already struggling to serve children and is unprepared for what’s to come,” said Wendy Lazarus, Founder & Co-President of The Children’s Partnership. “California’s kids deserve real access to quality dental care—not a false promise of it.” The brief highlights the challenges facing Medi-Cal in providing dental care to children, examines the State’s efforts to address these problems, and provides an action plan to help the program serve its growing number of enrollees. 

Download the full press statement here . 

California Healthline

A national study released today by the Pew Center on the States, part of the Pew Charitable Trusts, grades every state's level of adherence to a basic preventive dental procedure for children -- the application of dental sealant. California earned a "C."

"So now there is no state-led assessment of children's dental health needs, or even a plan to take care of the needs of California children," Kattlove said. "You need to first identify the needs, identify the solutions and then work to address those solutions. That's not happening."

Download the article here.

Ethan, age 3
Modoc County 

Ethan has serious cavities in his front teeth and needs treatment soon. In fact, the cavities are so bad that he needs oral surgery. Ethan is enrolled in Medi-Cal dental coverage, and the nearest oral surgeon that accepts Ethan’s Medi-Cal is 8 hours away. Getting him to the appointment presents many problems for his parents, Caroyln and Jake Loughry.

For regular check-ups, Carolyn takes her son to a dentist 20 miles away from their home in Alturas, California. “There are three dentists right here in town, but none of them take Medi-Cal,” she said.

Several months ago, Ethan’s dentist said that oral surgery was needed to treat his front teeth. The dental office referred Ethan to an oral surgeon in Stockton, an 8-hour drive away. “I asked them if there was someone else, but they said that no one closer takes Medi-Cal,” she said. There is an oral surgeon in Susanville, 90 minutes away, and Redding, about two hours away, but neither office accepts Medi-Cal.

Carolyn is a stay-at-home mom, caring for Ethan, who has spina bifida, and his 1-year-old sister, Elizabeth. Jake works on a ranch. Ethan is unable to walk due to the spina bifida, requiring Carolyn’s husband to help with the trip. “To get Ethan to the dentist means that my husband has to take three days off work. He’s been harvesting, and it’s hay season right now; he just can’t take that much time off work,” she explained. “Then there’s the gas and motel room. It’s a big burden to travel that far, and it’s a huge financial impact for us. He’s needed the treatment for two months now, but we just haven’t been able to afford the trip.”

Carolyn is thankful for the insurance coverage provided by Medi-Cal. “I just wish there were more dentists who accept Medi-Cal,” she said. “We’re saving money out of every paycheck to pay for the trip. We’re hoping next month my husband will be able to take the time off, and I think we’ll be able to afford the trip.” Currently, Ethan’s teeth are sensitive to cold, but he is not in pain. “I’m worried that his situation will get worse quickly,” Carolyn said. “We need to get him to the dentist soon.”

Dominic Guttierez
Siskiyou County

Anjelig Gutierrez discovered that her son, Dominic, had fragile teeth when he was a toddler. “He chipped a tooth when he was about 2 years old,” she said. “He also gets cavities easily.”

Anjelig lives in Yreka, CA, an area with only one dentist who accepts Medi-Cal, and where it takes months to get an appointment. “The staff at Early Head Start kept telling me that he needed to get his teeth seen, but the appointment was a long time away,” she said. Eventually, they were able to get an appointment in Sacramento, where the wait was three months. “Thankfully, Head Start helped me with transportation, because it was three hours to get there. Dominic was in pain, and he cried the whole way.” While waiting months for an appointment, Dominic’s dental needs had worsened so much that he needed to have six silver crowns on his teeth.

Over the next three years, Dominic, now age 5, periodically complained about his teeth hurting. “Three times I made appointments, waited months to get in, then they didn’t find anything wrong,” Anjelig said.  During the third dental visit, an abscess was discovered above several front teeth. Dominic and Anjelig listened to the dentist describe the treatment, which involved pulling several teeth. “With my son sitting next to me, the dentist said that I was going to have to hold my son’s head hard and keep it still, while he got in there and yanked the teeth out,” she said. “I could tell from my son’s face that he was terrified.”  Anjelig was unwilling to participate in the treatment, and asked for a referral instead to a pediatric dentist. It took nearly four months, but the dental office eventually complied and gave Anjelig a grant to see a dentist more than 65 miles away.

The pediatric dentist she saw gave Dominic a different prognosis. He said that there was no abscess. The teeth that were supposed to be pulled were loose naturally. “They’re baby teeth that will fallout soon,” Anjelig said. Anjelig appreciates the positive outcome for her son’s oral health; however, she is worn-out by the difficulties with seeing a dentist.  “If he says that his teeth hurt, I should be able to get him an appointment without waiting for months and months. But there’s only one dentist, so we have to wait.”

CaliforniaHealthline

As California forges ahead to resolve several key questions about how insurers will provide pediatric dental and vision benefits under the federal Affordable Care Act, a new study examines dental benefits in California's implementation of ACA.

"The study raises good questions," said Jenny Kattlove, who coordinates dental access programs for The Children's Partnership. "We want to make sure that children of all ages have access to dental coverage. We want to make sure families understand that children are eligible for pediatric dental benefits and that enrollment in both health and dental coverage will be coordinated."

Download the full article here. (PDF)

Download TCPs comments to California's Health Workforce Development Council, which is  charged with helping to expand California’s health workforce in order to provide access to quality healthcare for all Californians.