Free dental clinic gives uninsured children something to smile about

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH Dentist Kathleen Snellings looks at the teeth of Health Partners staff member Darlene Kost. Snellings volunteers at the free clinic in Waldorf to provide dental services for children. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

While the problems associated with providing dental care for uninsured children were not completely solved, care is generally more readily available since the death of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver. Charles County has opened the first free dental clinic for children in the area.

While it only serves Charles residents ages 2 to 10 for now, Tim Brown, executive director of the clinic, hopes to expand services to pregnant women within the next year and then children of all ages before eventually covering adults, too.

The clinic is looking for dentists, retired or active, to volunteer. Kathleen Snellings of Pomfret is the only one signed on so far. She puts in the time she can, using the newly created rooms in the clinic that are complete with two dental chairs, an X-ray machine and an array of instruments. ‘‘We could keep it busy five days a week” if there were enough volunteer help, Snellings said. She’s helped 20 children since the dental clinic opened in February, including an emergency call for a child who needed nerve treatment for an abscess who was sent in by his school principal. ‘‘We need to look at dentistry in a different light,” Snellings said. Too often it is considered a retail business, not medical care. However, periodontal disease is linked with high blood pressure, diabetes, low birth weight, premature births and heart problems.

For children in Maryland, dental care is supposed to be covered by the Maryland Children’s Health Insurance Program. ‘‘[Children] should be but they’re not” treated for dental under the MCHIP program, Jon Frank said chair of the Calvert Healthcare Solutions board. Because dentists are not fully reimbursed, most do not take patients on medical assistance.

Calvert Healthcare Solutions provides medical assistance to uninsured, low-income people. We would like to provide dental,” Frank said. ‘‘There’s a problem accessing care. Even if you have Medicaid there’s a problem getting the services,” he said. For now, though, the group has to focus its funds on regular medical help.

The coverage under MCHIP can be as good as most employer-based health insurance, Thembi Edwards of St. Leonard said. It does include dental and eye care for children, however, ‘‘Dental and optical are very, very difficult to find,” the mother of three said.

Edwards said she could find only one dentist in all of Calvert that would see the kids. As far as eye checkups, there were none; she eventually found a place in St. Mary’s that would see them.

Through MCHIP, county health departments provide assistance by local, participating dentists for eligible children up to age 19 or pregnant women of any age. Most adults in Southern Maryland are out of luck for dental insurance. ‘‘This is a huge problem for the homeless,” Jean Harmon, emergency service housing director at Three Oaks, said of the lack of dental treatment available for the uninsured. Dentists in the county do not participate in the Health Share program. The local health department helps some, she said. If a person comes in with five bad teeth, the agency will pay to have one pulled. The other four teeth must stay, though.

JESSE YEATMAN