Oral Health Newsletter Volume 7

In a bid to improve access to dental care for people with disabilities, Penn Dental Medicine has established FREE continuing education for dentists and their supporter personnel called the Center for Persons with Disabilities Presentation Series.

The series is aimed at creating awareness about the barriers to equitable oral health for individuals with disabilities and developing the competency needed to offer oral health care to this vulnerable population.

Dentists completing 18 or more of the courses within a three-year period will receive a certificate of completion from Penn Dental Medicine as a Disabilities Dentistry Clinician Expert.

https://cde.dental.upenn.edu/Course/5-Persons-with-Disabilities-Presentation-Series

• Click on the signup button and follow the prompts to register and gain access to the presentation series
• This opportunity is made possible through the support of Delta Dental
  
• For further information, contact the office of Continuing Dental Education, Penn Dental Medicine, PDMContinuingEd@dental.upenn.edu
  

Project goals are in alignment with Illinois Oral Health Plan IV, statewide and national oral health strategies with an intentional focus on health equity.

There are four overarching goals of IOHWA with the ultimate objective of achieving the following:

1. Reducing the use of emergency departments by individuals who seek dental services more appropriately delivered in a dental primary care setting
2. Expanding awareness of Illinois Public Health Dental Hygienists (PHDH) as a provider type
   
3. Strengthening the ability and scope of the oral health workforce in Illinois
   
4. Continuously improve understanding of the oral health workforce, workforce shortages, and capacities in Illinois to better focus initiatives that address the oral health status of Illinoisans
   

The project grant will run from September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2026.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic globally cannot be over-emphasized, with countries, institutions, and people all over the world still dealing with its consequences. OHS shares the story here of one community dental care provider on their activities and resilience throughout the pandemic.

Anne Jensen has been a dental hygienist for over 30 years and currently serves as the Director of Oral Health Services at Promise Healthcare, a local community health center that provides affordable and accessible high-quality care to Champaign-Urbana and surrounding communities. They act as a safety net clinic where people who have never had the opportunity to receive dental care are able to get it. A big percentage of their patients either have state insurance or are not insured.

Promise Healthcare had to undergo some major transitions. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Promise Healthcare visited schools for sealant clinics and Head Start programs to provide oral health education, fluoride treatments, and dental exams, but that stopped. They are ready to resume these programs. “We are set now, next month, to go back into Head Start and offer that piece of it. In addition, three schools have been reached already for the sealant program,” Jensen said.

However, despite the challenges of the COVID- 19 pandemic, Promise Healthcare is gradually growing. They recently were awarded a grant which they hope to use in the expansion of their dental operatories. They presently have four operatories and are planning to add at least two more and a lab in the coming month. They have also been able to expand their staff and hire two new dentists and a dental hygienist. Jensen said it hasn't been easy, but they are hoping to recruit more staff in the coming months.

Promise is working hard to expand services to meet the crushing demand. Jensen explained, “the phone rings off the wall and we receive at least 200 calls a day and most of these are from patients with urgent needs who have nowhere to go to get help for their dental issues.”

Joshua Egbedimame is the IDPH Oral Health Section’s (OHS) new graduate public service intern. He has a background in clinical medicine, with four years of experience working as a medical doctor and in the capacity of a general practitioner in Nigeria. He will serve as the editor of the OHS newsletter and be responsible for improving and maintaining the Illinois Oral Health Resource Map, which was featured in the June 2022 OHS newsletter. The map assists the public in finding oral health providers that can meet their needs, as well as helping oral health stakeholders identify oral health provider shortage areas and Medicaid-accepting provider shortage areas.

"My experiences over time with the delays that occur during outbreak investigations and disease notification, and the poor health surveillance systems especially at the primary healthcare level in rural areas of Nigeria, stimulated my interest in public health, and I am here at UIS for my master’s program in public health with the hope of acquiring the practical field experience and skills needed to become a public health specialist.”

Joshua is looking forward to learning about oral health programs and gaining further experience in public health. When he’s not at work, Joshua enjoys playing basketball and watching movies.

Despite recent modest gains in Illinois residents' oral health, there are still substantial and harmful health disparities in the state. Access to oral health care is still a problem for some groups in Illinois, including children, low-income families, people from racial and ethnic minorities, pregnant women, and people who require special care. Hence, there is a need to offer a trustworthy and valid source of information that is regularly updated for use in designing, executing, and assessing initiatives to enhance Illinois residents' oral health.

In this regard, Pedro X. Medina Cuevas, an applied epidemiology fellow of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) will be working with the Office of Health Promotion, Division of Emerging Issues, to develop and implement the Illinois Oral Health Surveillance System (IOHSS) based on the Oral Health Surveillance Plan (IOHSP). As part of his role, he will create an analysis pipeline of oral health metrics, design visualization approaches to the aforementioned metrics, and improve data capture and reporting.

He has a background in medical microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico, and an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health, San Juan. “I decided to branch a little bit from medicine to public health where I feel I will have a greater impact with my work, and I am hoping the fellowship will give me a little bit more direction of what to do in the future,” he said. During his leisure time, Pedro enjoys hiking and backpacking.

For comments, questions, or to be added to the OHS newsletter distribution list, email DPH.OralHealth@Illinois.gov