HHC is making great strides for children’s oral health in Brooklyn
A new pediatric clinic is to open at Woodhull Hospital. Cumberland Health Center Exceeds Federal Goals to Prevent Tooth Decay Among Children.
Rotten teeth and irritated gums should no longer plague children’s lives, and dedicated dentists at HHC Hospital and Community Health Center in Brooklyn are helping to ensure that they do not.
Woodhull Medical Center is preparing to open a brand new seven-chair Pediatric Dental Clinic that will serve hundreds of new patients annually and house three new pediatric dental residents.
And Cumberland Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Brooklyn recently won the HHC Patient Safety Champion Award for achieving a high success rate in placing dental sealants on the molars of pediatric patients ages 8 to 14.
Medical experts are increasingly recognizing oral health as an important part of overall physical health. In addition to difficulty smiling, chewing, and swallowing, tooth decay and gum disease have been linked to diabetes and heart disease, among other ailments. And while tooth decay is largely preventable, the Centers for Disease Control reports that it remains one of the most common childhood illnesses – five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.
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| Dr. Sumitra Golikeri | |
“Getting children started at an early age to help take care of their teeth is very important. It gives them a good foundation for taking care of their teeth as well as overcoming the fear of the dentist that many adults have. If we start early, we can minimize disease and prevent a lot of fear,” said Dr. Sumitra Golikeri, DMD, who is a pediatric dentist and director of the residency program for this specialty. Early loss of baby teeth due to tooth decay can also cause adult teeth to come in crooked or crowded, he said.
Cumberland’s dental team won an HHC Patient Safety Award in 2013 for achieving a consistently high average from 2011-2012 in placing dental sealants of 81%, which also exceeded the federal government’s target of 28% for children aged 6-9 years old by the year 2020. as well as internal benchmarks of 75%.
Dental sealants are thin coatings of resin that dentists put on permanent molars to fill grooves in the grinding surface of teeth so that bacteria cannot settle in and cause cavities or tooth decay. They are an adjunct to cleaning and fluoride treatment and can prevent up to 60 percent of tooth decay in treated teeth, according to the federal government.
In New York City, an estimated 325,000 children ages 6 to 12 have never had fillings, and more than a third do not visit the dentist regularly, according to a 2011 study by the New York City Department of Health.
Dr. Alfonzo B. Owens III, DMD, MPH, Assistant Director of the Department of Dentistry at Cumberland, says his program has worked to change that by training providers to stress to parents the importance of sealants. screening every child age 8 and older for presence and providing parents with sealant educational materials in English and Spanish. Providers also documented parental refusals.
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| Dr. Alfonzo Owens with Wandie Gonzalez, his dental assistant | |
Dr. Owens said the sealants are useful because many low-income children and immigrants who visit the clinic do not see a dentist regularly or have come from places where dentists were not accessible. Many also come from parts of the world and the US where the water is not fluoridated, such as the New York City water supply. Cumberland Dental Clinic treats approximately 8,000 adults and children annually in its five-chair facility, which opened in 2009.
“We have a fair population of recent arrivals in New York, and they may not have been here long enough to benefit from fluoride in their teeth. Sealants are fine whether they get fluoride or not. It’s an added protection,” Dr. Owens said.
Meanwhile, Woodhull Hospital is preparing to open the doors within the next two months on its brand new $2 million state-of-the-art pediatric dental clinic, which is expected to serve 10,000 patients a year. It is funded in large part by a New York State HEAL grant to expand access to quality primary care for low-income families, said Dr. Peter Sherman, DDS, Chair, Department of Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
The new facility will house the three new pediatric dentists from July and has already received up to 70 applications, Dr Golikeri said.
The dedicated, dedicated pediatric clinic, decorated in bright, welcoming colors, will provide comprehensive treatment – including children with special needs – and offer emergency and trauma care as well as orthodontic treatment. It will have digital mapping and x-rays, and video screens attached to each patient’s chair to educate and entertain parents and children.
“We are very excited to open this specialized clinic and expand access to this important health care service to more children,” said Dr. Golikeri.
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