Network fills in kids' dental care gaps

June 01, 2009 6:00 AM

SAN ANDREAS - Just as dental care for the poor is disappearing elsewhere in California, leaders of social service agencies in Calaveras County this month are launching a new dental care network that will give children the oral surgery and other treatment they need.

The Calaveras Dental Network grew out of related efforts to keep children in school and data showing that dental problems are the top reason children miss school, said Nancy Tiffany, program director of Head Start preschools for The Resource Connection, an agency that serves Calaveras County families.

"A child who has an abscess or a lot of decay in their mouth is a child who is going to be sick more often and miss more school," Tiffany said.

Dental hygienists who visit Calaveras County schools have made headway in preventing cavities in students but still find that almost a quarter of the children have untreated cavities and more than one in five have visible tooth decay.

Although California still offers dental care for uninsured children from low-income families (the state's dental care program for poor adults will be discontinued July 1), no dentist in Calaveras County currently accepts Denti-Cal.

Dentists say that's because Denti-Cal payments are low, and the paperwork required to receive reimbursement is onerous.

"If somebody is in a lot of need, I would rather do it for free than actually go through the paperwork to get money back," said Dr. Joana Motiu, a dentist who practices in San Andreas and Valley Springs and who has cooperated with local agencies to treat low-income children. She sometimes donates her services.

Motiu and representatives from the Calaveras County Office of Education, First 5 Calaveras and The Resource Connection came up with the idea of the Calaveras Dental Network to raise funds to pay for dental care for children and to take care of paperwork that is an obstacle for dentists willing to treat children living in poverty.

The Resource Connection will get the names of children in need from dental hygienists working in the schools and will deal with the paperwork to figure out which children have insurance of some kind and to get payment where possible.

For complete details: Network fills in kids' dental care gaps