Dental Program for Poor Makes Health Officials Smile

Swollen jaws. Painful abscesses. Baby teeth so black and rotted down that only fragments remain on the gums. In her 27 years as a public school nurse and now administrator in the San Fernando Valley, Sharon Swonger has seen them all.

“It’s pretty shocking to see elementary [school] children in this condition,” said Swonger, organizations facilitator for the San Fernando cluster of the Los Angeles Unified School District. “The No. 1 defect that school nurses of L.A. Unified find in children are dental defects,” she added.

The dental problems got even worse, those working in local public health said, after county-provided dental services were severely cut back in the mid-1990s. But now some relief for the Valley’s poor--especially children--is on the way.

Starting today, nine private dental providers across the Valley will open their doors to many more visits by the Valley’s poor over the next seven months in a program funded by a recent $1.2-million appropriation by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

If all goes as planned, the county contracts with the private providers will be automatically renewed for four additional years at an annual cost of $2.1 million. The money is expected to allow for an estimated 20,000 dental visits per year.

Although services will be available to the poor of all ages, “Children will be given priority,” said Dexter Moon, assistant hospital administrator in charge of dental services at ValleyCare/Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, which oversees the new program. Most of the dental services will be provided free with some offered on a sliding-scale basis depending on a patient’s ability to pay.

For now, the money will pay primarily for emergency care such as diagnostic exams, certain types of fillings and root canal procedures. Preventive care, such as routine exams, may be added at a later date, Moon said. ValleyCare staff will be making patient referrals to the private providers.

This program came about as a result of an inquiry two years ago that found that the Valley’s poor were underserved, compared with the rest of Los Angeles County, when it came to dental services, said Ron Hansen, health deputy to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

“We asked the health department for a report on the availability of dental services throughout the county,” Hansen said. “There were dental services at various [county] facilities in other parts of the county, but nothing in the Valley.”

The current allocation for dental services “is not the final plan,” Hansen added. “This is the beginning step.”

In public health circles, dental care is increasingly looked upon as an important component of overall health care, advocates say.

“If a child or adult does not have adequate dental care, it can become an eight ball,” leading to social and economic problems down the line, said Yaroslavsky.

Children with toothaches might not be able to fully concentrate in class, and persistent pains can hamper their education, Swonger said.

If untreated, oral diseases in children and adults can lead to serious health issues, in rare cases even death.

Studies have estimated that across the country, 51 million school hours and 20 million work days are lost every year because of dental-related illnesses.

A 1997 report by the state Department of Health Services and the California Wellness Foundation found that there was a “neglected epidemic” of dental problems among California’s children, who suffer more from dental problems and oral diseases, on average, than children from other states.

“Dental care is part of health care. Health care should be a right, not a privilege,” Yaroslavsky said.

Area public health officials applaud the effort to increase dental services for the Valley’s poor.

“It’s long overdue,” said Dr. Tim Collins, dental director of public health programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He praised how the widespread locations of the private providers will allow for easier access by patients Valleywide.

“The private sector and the county are coming together to jointly solve a need in the community,” Collins said.

The nine locations are Eddie Siman, D.D.S. in Panorama City; H. Mintzer, D.D.S. and Associates in North Hollywood; Laurel Canyon Dental Center in North Hollywood; Robert Taylor Dental Clinic in Pacoima; San Fernando Dental Center in San Fernando; Vanowen Dental Center in Van Nuys; Van Nuys-Panorama Dental Clinic in Panorama City; United Family Dental Group in Arleta, and Northeast Valley Health Corp. in San Fernando.

Swonger, of the LAUSD, said she would like to see more done to provide children with preventive care, but nonetheless believed the effort to provide urgent dental services to be a solid first step.

“It’s a good thing any time we can help the children,” she said.