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that they have a dental home, some place they can go for treatment,” said Dr. Goodman, of the Maryland Office of Oral Health. His office is working with the Maryland State Dental Association and other stakeholders through the Maryland Dental Action Coalition to run and monitor a pilot program at a few schools where, following assessments, children with problems are given “a real bricks and mortar” referral, a dental home where treatment can be delivered at a reasonable cost. A Statement from the American Dental Association 11 Action for Dental Health: Bringing Disease Prevention into Communities The pilot program is funded by a grant from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The state requires that mobile clinics visiting schools must refer all children in need of care to dentists who are accepting Medicaid patients, in order for the mobile clinics to receive Medicaid reimbursements. “What I see is some sort of dental case worker, someone to steer these kids to care,” Dr. Goodman said. He cited the ADA’s Community Dental Health Coordinator program as a good model for his vision. The Community Dental Health Coordinator The Community Dental Health Coordinator (CDHC) is a new model of community health worker piloted by the ADA in a project begun in 2006. Their 18 months of online and clinical education prepares them to deliver oral health education and prevention services, and to help patients navigate an often daunting public health system to receive care from dentists. Most CDHCs come from the types of inner city, rural and Native American communities in which they work — in some cases the same communities in which they work. This all but eliminates the cultural, educational and language barriers that otherwise could impede their effectiveness. The CDHC model “allows folks to go in and do the kind of education and community mapping and outreach that we haven’t done before in dentistry,” said Dr. Dunn Cumby, who directed the CDHC educational program at the University of Oklahoma. “It‘s great when there are people that are from the community … and you give them the skill sets that they need to go into the community and then educate, navigate and bring them in to get the kind of treatment that everybody deserves.” CDHCs understand the everyday struggles people in underserved communities face — the kind of struggles that sometimes put routine dental care out of reach. “If you had the choice between trying to make sure your heat is turned back on or making sure that you can pay your bills, that’s going to be a higher priority than your oral health,” said Calvin Hoops, a CDHC at the Esperanza Health Center in north Philadelphia. The Role of Community Dental Health Coordinators Angela Black is a community dental health coordinator (CDHC) for the Chickasaw Nation Division of Health. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma — College of Dentistry’s CDHC program in 2011. “I became a CDHC to improve the lives of people throughout my community, by providing care and resources to my Native American patients,” Ms. Black said. “I desired to do more for the citizens I serve and my community.” Her role as a CDHC, Ms. Black explained, is to help the people in her community overcome the barriers that can keep people — particularly lower-income people — from accessing the oral health care that’s available to them. “Helping people locate access to care is uplifting and a life changing experience,” she said. “At the end of each day I am positively influenced by providing assistance to those who need it most.” Copyright ©2013 American Dental Association 12 Action for Dental Health: Bringing Disease Prevention into Communities With the educational phase of the CDHC pilot project concluded, the ADA has conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the program, examining such factors as patient satisfaction, improvements in dental health in host communities, and the financial viability of the CDHC model.