Through easing pain, Cass County Dental Clinic has brought smiles to thousands of kids

Angela Carvalho never thought taking her three children to the dentist would be as easy as it is at the Cass County Dental Clinic.

“I can’t say enough about them,” says Carvalho, of Cleveland. “They make them feel so comfortable; they talk to my children as people. It makes me appreciate it as a parent because they notice my children. That’s really cool.”

Carvalho’s children are among the nearly 9,600 patients that have been seen during 46,969 dental visits through the Cass Community Dental Program.

“Any way we can have a positive impact, especially those at a young age, it gives them a lifetime of health,” says Katie Schroeder, director of dental programs at the Cass County Health Foundation.

There are several critical reasons to help children get excellent dental health, which, through the Cass County program, includes school-based screening.

“A little kid doesn’t know there is something wrong,” Schroeder says. “Sometimes they don’t know because it feels the same way it has felt forever.”

Having healthy teeth as a child, Schroeder says, is important for many reasons, including speech development, sleep, diet and paying attention in school. And, of course, healthy baby teeth are critical to having healthy permanent teeth, Schroeder adds.

The Cass Community Health Foundation was established as a hospital-based foundation in 1985. When the hospital was sold in 2003 to a for-profit health care company, the foundation became an independent non-profit serving children in Cass County with a simple and direct mission: Empower the community through improved health.

A small dental program began in 2006 where school nurses in Belton, Ray-Pec and Grandview identified urgent dental needs among low-income students. To meet those needs, the foundation would then find a dentist to accept the child and provide treatment at no cost to the family. The dentist would then bill the foundation for the services provided, typically at a reduced rate.

Then, in 2009, a coalition was formed to address the area’s lack of access to oral health services for children, a need identified by school nurses.

Under the leadership of Cass Community Health Foundation, the coalition looked at ways to establish a permanent dental home for low-income children who had no access to dental care primarily because of a lack of Medicaid dental providers.

The dental clinic opened in Belton in July 2011, with funding from both the Health Forward Foundation and the REACH Healthcare Foundation.

“The clinic was flooded with calls from families who had not had anywhere local to take their children for care previously,” Schroeder says. “The amount of calls coming in was overwhelming. The only advertising that we did was through the Cass County and Grandview school districts, and we were overwhelmed at the response.

“It was heartbreaking to see the condition of the children’s mouths when they came in.”

In September 2014, an outreach coordinator was hired to grow the school-based dental screening programs from four districts to 11 districts in Cass County and Grandview.

Schroeder says almost one in four new patients seen between 2014, when they started tracking data, and 2017 had cavities on seven or more teeth.

“The need was undeniable,” she says.

The school-based dental screening program sees about 4,800 students annually. All students are screened regardless of insurance status. Students who have parental consent also receive a free fluoride varnish treatment.

“All students get dental supplies to take home and receive oral health education. The program care coordinator follows up with families of students who have untreated decay and who indicated that they have Medicaid or no dental insurance.

“The key is to get them early, to get them in the clinic and healthy,” she says.

In July 2015, Cass Regional Medical Center partnered with the foundation to open a part-time satellite clinic in Harrisonville.

The need in the southern part of the county was quickly evident.

“With the opening of the Harrisonville site, we saw a 53% increase in patients from rural Cass County communities accessing care,” Schroeder says, adding that the clinics have paid staff members who provide critical consistency and build relationships with the children.

“It can still be scary to go to the dentist,” she says.

The dental care program is extremely important in taking care of the community’s unmet needs, says Sara Jones, Belton School District’s assistant superintendent, pupil services.

“As a school official I see the importance of good student health as it relates to the ability of children to focus on learning rather than pain they experience from dental decay or other dental concerns,” Jones says.

The school screenings are vital, she says.

“The number of students in need of urgent or immediate care has continued to decrease over the past few years, indicating the services provided within our community are succeeding.

“I would not exaggerate by saying it would be devastating blow to the community if these clinics were not available.”