UAMS, Delta Dental Band Together to Improve Oral Health in State
| The 12th Street Health & Wellness Center has a mission.
A student-run free clinic operating under the supervision of licensed health care professionals, the center provides health screenings, education, immunizations and basic dental screenings for the community. Students from all five colleges and the Graduate School volunteer their time at the clinic.
Avery Pruitt, a junior in the Dental Hygiene program, gets X-rays of a patient’s mouth. The 12th Street clinic provides basic dental screenings for patients, many of whom have no access to dental care.
Achieving the dental portion of the clinic’s mission would not be possible without the generosity of the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation. Since 2003, the foundation has given more than $2.3 million in grants to UAMS — $240,000 dedicated to the 12th Street clinic.
Those funds pay for a dentist and dental assistant to be on duty Mondays and Wednesdays when the clinic is open. Foundation funds also allow patients needing more extensive dental care to be referred to the UAMS Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation Oral Health Clinic and the UAMS Dental Hygiene Clinic on the Little Rock campus.
“Most of our patients have no other access to dental care,” said Marcia Wheeler, D.D.S., who provides dental services at the clinic. “Without the Delta Dental funding, many of our patients wouldn’t be able to get a needed teeth cleaning or get that abscessed tooth pulled.”
In 2018, 468 adults were treated as a result of the Delta Dental grant — 330 at the 12th Street Clinic, with another 96 referred to the Dental Hygiene Clinic and 42 referred to the Oral Health Clinic.
“At Delta Dental of Arkansas, we believe in the connection of oral health to overall health. But we also understand that oral health can be considered somewhat of a luxury. Often if a decision must be made between going to work to earn a paycheck or seeing a dental care provider, then the paycheck is going to win every time to the detriment of oral health,” said Chrissy Chatham, executive director of Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation.
“By funding the 12th Street Health & Wellness Center, we can meet individuals where they are and hopefully reach them before dental issues become serious problems,” she said.
“Delta Dental has been such a valuable partner for UAMS as we work to improve the dental health of all Arkansans,” said Susan Long, Ed.D., dean of the College of Health Professions and a professor in the college’s Dental Hygiene program.
Marcia Wheeler, D.D.S., consults with dental hygiene students on a patient’s X-rays. Wheeler works Monday and Wednesdays at the free clinic.
In addition to the 12th Street clinic, the foundation provided funding to create and implement an interprofessional education (IPE) dental module, which is being incorporated into the IPE Triple Aim Curriculum activities that are a graduation requirement for all UAMS students.
The dental module is intended to develop general oral health education and interprofessional and patient-centered communication skills in future and current health professionals.
The foundation elected to support the curriculum because it is a program that can have a lifelong impact as the students become health care professionals, Chatham said.
“If we can help create something within the educational curriculum for all health professions, especially those outside of the dental fields, to learn more about oral health, it will help us get that much closer to fulfilling our mission to improve the oral health of Arkansans,” she said.
The foundation also provides funding to the UAMS Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation Oral Health Clinic.
According to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), the oral health picture in Arkansas is less than ideal. Among children and adolescents — 64% had evidence of current or past cavities, 29% had untreated cavities, 27% needed routine care, and 4% needed urgent care.
The picture doesn’t improve with age. ACHI found that 23.3% of adults 65 and older in the state reported they had lost all of the permanent teeth, compared with 16.9% in the United States.
As a not-for-profit organization, Delta Dental of Arkansas donates 30% of its net income from operations to fund the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation — $1.5 million to $2.5 million a year, Chatham said.
“As a foundation, we rely on our partners in the community, like UAMS, to make an impact on oral health in Arkansas,” she said. “Our goal at Delta Dental is to move the needle for oral health and to have a real impact in the state. UAMS is helping us do that.”