Dental care program brings services to kids in Maine

Dental care program brings services to kids in Maine

Maine Dental Connection sends dental providers to schools and childcare facilities to provide care.

WATERVILLE, Maine — Many kids in Maine do not receive what most would consider adequate dental care.

In fact, 6 in 10 children on their parent’s health plans receive standard care. That figure falls to 2 in 10 for kids on MaineCare, according to Kalie Hess, associate director of the Children’s Oral Health Network of Maine.

Hess and her colleagues at COHN have been working hard to get more kids the dental care they need.

Leading the effort is Emilie Knight, the program development director of Maine Dental Connection, a program that coordinates community resources, dental professionals, schools, and childcare facilities throughout Maine.

Knight explained that Maine’s dental care situation is created by a few factors. First, there is an overall shortage of providers, which becomes more extreme for those on MaineCare. Only 25% of dentists are covered by MaineCare, according to a Maine Monitor report. The shortage of providers means even those with insurance have long wait times and few available appointments.

Another reason, Knight said, is the logistics of even getting to the dentist.

“As a parent,” said Knight, “even when you have the car and the money to put gas in the car, the logistics of taking the paid time off, if you have paid time off. Getting to the dental office. What if your kid gets sick? Okay, now you have to cancel that appointment, and they don’t have openings for six months.”

To avoid those hurdles, the dental providers working for Maine Dental Connection travel to their patients. Meaning when dental hygienist Ali Oberg and dental coordinator Jackie Davidson are seeing patients, they are often in hallways, stairwells or an empty conference room.

Their goal, because for many of their patients this is their first dentist appointment, is to defy the negative reputation dentists have. Fun colored sunglasses, bubblegum dental pastes, and a smile are tools Oberg uses when cleaning kids’ teeth.

“By the second time, some of the kids remember us and they hop in my chair, excited to get their teeth shined,” said Oberg.

Davidson and Oberg will make multiple trips to the same location throughout the year, providing routine, twice-a-year care to the young kids they tend to.

Oberg is confident that there is no difference between the care she gives in the dental office and in a school.

“I can do pretty much everything I can do in my chair at work, I can do here,” Oberg said.

There’s a mobile x-ray machine if needed, and every patient has their teeth photographed and reviewed by a dentist.

The program currently covers children from birth through pre-k, but even then, the kids become system patients for their local dentist. That means Oberg and Davidson, who work at Waterville Community Dental Center, possibly sign a dozen kids each visit up with their clinic.

The care Maine Dental Connection provides is appreciated by patients and their families said Angie Nightingale, a Home Start coordinator with Kennebec Valley Community Action Partners.

“I’ve had families thank me personally for the care they could not get without these clinics,” said Nightingale.

Maine Dental Connection is currently operating in nine Maine counties; however, COHN hopes to continue expanding the program over the coming years.

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