Local healthcare provider receives grant to expand child dental care – Los Angeles Times

A healthcare provider with a Glendale location has received a $150,000 grant to expand its dental services to more underserved children.

Comprehensive Community Health Centers, which also operates facilities with dental care in Eagle Rock and Sunland, will use the grant to partially fund the salaries of a pediatric dentist and general dentist.

Funds will come from L.A. Care Health Plan, a public agency that offers healthcare plans to low-income and other vulnerable populations, also known as a public option.

The agency awarded $1.65 million in grants for the purpose of expanding dental care to 11 healthcare providers throughout L.A. County, including Comprehensive Community Health Centers.

The reality is dental care is often overlooked, just as behavioral health is often overlooked, said Dr. Richard Seidman, chief medical officer of L.A. Care.

That leads to the progression of preventable tooth decay, which can lead to more serious, and more costly, medical problems, according to Seidman.

Were aiming to put the mouth back in the body and address the needs of the whole person, Seidman said.

Comprehensive Community Healths Glendale center has worked to integrate its medical and dental-care models, according to Toyin Idehen, director of development for all of the centers.

The idea is to screen children for tooth decay, also known as dental caries, while they are getting their medical checkups.

If risk is identified, the child can potentially walk over to the dental-care provider and receive treatment the same day.

That could reduce the number of times parents have to take off work and children have to take off school, as well as other burdens that low-income and communities of color in particular face when accessing healthcare, according to Idehen.

Now, Comprehensive Community Health will try to build the same model at its newer Sunland center, where the pair of dentists the provider plans to hire will focus their time.

We are kind of replicating and marrying what we are doing at Glendale because it is a successful program, Idehen said.

Last year, the Glendale center saw 4,315 children in its dental department. About 9,330 dental patients in total were treated across all sites during the same year. Nearly 700 were uninsured.

Thats a huge number, Idehen said.

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Local healthcare provider receives grant to expand child dental care - Los Angeles Times

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