By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Many Wood County families cannot afford dental insurance, or cannot find dental offices willing to accept Medicaid patients. So for many, dental care is put off until the pain is unbearable.
But soon, local residents will have a place to turn to for help at the new dental center at the Wood County Community Health Center.
The center, with its sliding fee scale, will not turn away anyone due to lack of insurance or funds.
“Nobody will have to go without dental services because of an inability to pay,” said Alex Aspacher, community outreach coordinator at the health department. “There’s a large need for those in the Medicaid community.”
The dental center will target women, children and the uninsured, but anyone will be accepted.
“As soon as you’re ready for your first checkup, till you don’t have a need for us anymore,” said Kami Wildman, outreach and enrollment specialist at the Wood County Health Department.
The dental clinic has five exam chairs, a lab, and will offer services such as X-rays, minor surgeries and preventative care.
The addition of the dental services makes the community health center a comprehensive “patient-centered medical home,” Wildman said.
The center provides a primary care physician, dental, pharmacy and behavioral health all in one building, Aspacher said.
The dental facility provides a patient service that has been identified as an important missing piece for decades.
“Dental has been a consistent need in the county going back some time,” Wildman said. “It’s easy to put it off until you have pain.”
And like many other health issues, poor dental care can lead to or worsen other health problems. More and more correlations are being identified between poor dental health and diabetes and heart issues.
“It’s possible if we help people with oral health, that other benefits will follow,” Aspacher said.
By reaching children at a younger age, local public health officials hope to help promote healthy dental habits early on.
The opening date for the facility is still unknown. The dental center has hired its program coordinator and an hygienist. Still to be hired is a dentist, two assistants and two support staff.
An open house at the dental center is planned for Dec. 6, from 4 to 7 p.m.
“We’re really thinking once people get in here to see it, they will be impressed,” Aspacher said.
Community health assessments have repeatedly shown unmet dental needs as a top health problem for local residents.
The health department was able to secure $825,000 from the federal government for the dental facility that extends off the east end of the health department at 1840 E. Gypsy Lane Road, Bowling Green.
More than a decade ago, local officials who cared about public health and about children met at the county health department to discuss the lack of dental care for local children. At that point there was one dentist in the county who freely accepted Medicaid patients.
The problem wasn’t an easy fix with a clear culprit. Dentists are reimbursed at a lower rate by Medicaid than through private insurance. And the Medicaid patients often have significant dental needs because they have delayed treatment due to the expense.
They often wait till the pain is unbearable, and the cost is escalated.
Since then, the county offered a Band-Aid solution that has been a lifesaver to some residents. Once a month, the Smile Express parked its RV-size mobile dental unit outside the Wood County Health District to treat patients who otherwise would go without care.
Though it made a difference in many lives, it was just scratching the surface of the unmet dental needs in the county. Every time the health district conducted an assessment of the county, the lack of dental services for low income residents ranked high on the list of needs.
In 2015, dental care was the top unmet health care need for nearly 157,400 children of all family incomes across the state, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Almost 486,000 children in the state lacked dental insurance, and nearly 340,000 had never been to a dentist.
In Wood County that same year, 21 percent of children had not had a dental appointment in the past year, while more than 9 percent had never been to the dentist.
Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease among children 6 to 11 years old, affecting about a quarter of all kids, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It worsens as they age, affecting almost 60 percent of those aged 12 to 19 years. The Ohio Department of Health cites that more than half of Ohio children have experienced tooth decay by the time they are in third grade.
And poor dental care doesn’t stop at the gums. Tooth infections can lead to problems elsewhere in the body, and poor teeth can lead to bad food choices causing poor nutrition.
Following is more information on the open house next week.
The dental expansion of the health center, located within Wood County Health Department, will be open to the public during a Holiday Open House from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6. In addition to tours of the health center and the dental expansion, the event will offer light refreshments, free chair massages, a dental-themed photo booth, take-home crafts for children, and a raffle.
