The L.A. Trust OHAB meeting opens with good news on dental screenings
Dr. Maritza Cabezas, dental director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, discussed “dental deserts” at The L.A. Trust’s oral health convene.
Representatives from private and public oral health organizations discussed the state of children’s oral health at The L.A. Trust’s Oral Health Advisory Board Meeting, March 11, 2020 in at the California Community Foundation in downtown Los Angeles.
The meeting was convened by Associate Program Director Stella Kim, The L.A. Trust’s oral health lead. She introduced Executive Director Maryjane Puffer, who opened the meeting with good news: The Los Angeles Unified School Board approved a resolution the day before expanding dental and vision screenings for K-12 students. The resolution permits no-cost dental health screenings for every LAUSD student whose parents do not opt out, and requires a plan to be developed for the 2020-21 school year. Previously, prior parental approval was required for the non-invasive assessments.
The L.A. Trust’s Oral Health Advisory Board is a prime convener in the Los Angeles Country’s dental care community for school-based oral health. Its quarterly OHAB meetings attract dozens of participants from the public and private sectors. Puffer provided an update on The L.A. Trust’s Oral Health Initiative, including The L.A. Trust Tooth Fairy Event, which provided free dental screenings for 205 students and community members and attracted a record number of attendees February 22.
She announced The L.A. Trust is working with UCLA’s More LA Smiles on a Local District Pilot Project funded by the California
Dental Transformation Initiative (DTI). The pilot project will expand The L.A Trust’s Oral Health Initiative to 85 schools in LAUSD Local District South. The L.A. Trust will also participate in a 2020 Universal Kindergarten Screening pilot program with 141 potential school sites this year.
California gets C-minus
Fatima Clark of Children Now gave a statewide update on children’s oral health from the 2020 California Children’s Report Card. The report card gave the state’s oral health policies and resources a C-minus.
“Too few children enrolled in Medi-Cal receive preventative services,” Clark said. Nearly 4 in 10 California kindergartners (39%) did not complete oral health assessments due to financial burden or lack of funds; of those who did, 20% had untreated dental decay. But the report was cautiously optimistic about the improvements in student oral health, stating that “recent efforts to improve utilization look promising.”
Read more on the California Dental Association website
Dr. Maritza Cabezas, dental director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, outlined a recent survey of “dental deserts” in the county. Dental deserts were mapped using three criteria: high population density; low income (Medi-Cal income cut-off); and one dental provider or less for every 4,000 patients.
The map identified numerous high-need, low-resource areas, many along the CA-110 corridor in Central and South Los Angeles. The survey identified 15 publicly funded medical clinics where dental services could be added and six dental clinics where oral healthcare could be expanded.
The morning session ended with a briefing from the UCLA-led More LA Smiles Consortium on a new pilot program designed to help Medi-Cal beneficiaries age 0 to 20. Associate Director Bonnie Shook and Technical Product Manager Joshua Norton introduced the LA Dental Registry and Referral System (LADRRS), which will allow medical and dental providers to “close the referral loop” and help thousands of patients get the oral healthcare they need. The presentations were followed by a working lunch and four breakout discussions on top systems change drivers: policy, financing, care and community.