OC Business Journal

Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County Steps Up as Frontline Providers Durning the Pandemic

Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County (Healthy Smiles) showed its superhero strength amidst a global pandemic, when dental disease in high-risk populations became even more exacerbated. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic and Healthy Smiles became one of the 5% of dental clinics that remained open and provided emergency dental care.

During the nine-week state lockdown, Healthy Smiles handled 250 emergency cases after getting emergency calls from parents of children with severe dental pain or infection. When patients with dental emergencies visited local children’s hospital emergency rooms during this national crisis, they were referred to Healthy Smiles for treatment.* We are the only pediatric dental clinic in the county that offers general anesthesia and other sedation services at little to no cost for underserved children with special healthcare needs. Therefore, we did not to turn away a single child. We are dedicated to addressing the unique needs of our underserved community through innovative and comprehensive dental programs.

Dr. Priyal Ohri, the Dental Director of Healthy Smiles, reports that “COVID-19 has drastically impacted the communities we serve. It has shaken them to their core and has left them at a loss for necessary resources. We have seen a growing demand and dependency on emergency dental services. Recently, a parent called the clinic because her four-yearold was in so much pain, he could not eat. The child was seen the next day and 11 of his 20 teeth had cavities!” The child was put under general anesthesia, making him one of the approximately 500 severe cases we have annually. Unfortunately, extensive dental decay and general anesthesia cases are becoming more common because the pandemic is exacerbating the effects of barriers to oral healthcare. Unlike other medical illnesses, childhood dental cavities are fully preventable with preventive dental care and appropriate oral hygiene habits.

The past year and a half, we have had a total of 97,312 patient encounters through all our programs (Clinical Services, Dental Clinic Mobiles, Teledentistry/Telehealth, and Education). Despite serving a high volume of patients in our clinic and outreach programs, we are happy to announce that we had no COVID-19 outbreaks in our clinic. The clinical leadership team organized effective infection control protocols while maintaining a gold standard of care throughout the pandemic.

Since 2003, Healthy Smiles has had approximately 1 million encounters with children and families by offering collaborative programs directed at

prevention, advocacy, outreach, education, and access to treatment. Every day our dental heroes are strengthened by the contributions of our donors, board members, leaders, providers, staff, and volunteers. We could not do what we do without the generous help of community members who support our cause. To learn more about Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County and how you can get involved, visit www.healthysmilesoc.org/donate or contact donate@healthysmilesoc.org.

*It is estimated that emergency room visits due to dental issues cost California $3.5 million and the nation $2.2 billion annually.

HEALTHCARE

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2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://ocbusinessjournal.pressreader.com/article/282209423728669

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