Expansion of Oral Health Care Services in Rural Southwest Virginia Through an Integrated Network of Community Resources: Summary
Creators: name: Cox, Kenneth M., Au.D
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2006

description: Expansion of Oral Health Care Services in Rural Southwest Virginia Through an Integrated Network of Community Resources, is an on-going project funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant ID04 RH 00844-01 (Funded amount $545,624 over 3 years). The Principal Investigator is Kenneth M. Cox, Au.D. The purpose of this project is to increase access to dental care for uninsured, lowincome adults of Virginia's New River Valley. Background: The service area for this project includes the New River Health District which is composed of the rural counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski and the City of Radford. Floyd, Giles and Pulaski counties are classified as Federal Medically Underserved Areas (MUA). The original project was initiated in response to a community needs assessment and surveys which found that access to oral health care was rated as one of the top five priority needs in the New River Valley, particularly for uninsured, low-income adults. Data also showed that 36% of the households included at least one person with the loss of 6 or more teeth; 46% had at least one person with tooth cavities; and 53% of households had no dental insurance. In addition, the four New River Valley hospitals report an inordinate number of dental related emergency room visits totaling 2,443 in the 24 months prior to the award of the grant, thereby corroborating the lack of readily available dental services for the target population in the project area. Over seventy dentists practicing in the project service area were unable or unwilling to serve a target population due to reimbursement problems. This situation was exacerbated because dental services are not mandated by the Virginia Department of Health, no state mandated dental funding for the New River Valley, and adult Medicaid benefits lack any dental coverage in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Methods: The project addressed Healthy People 2010 Oral Health Goal to Prevent and control oral and craniofacial diseases, conditions, and injuries and improve access to related services by increasing access to oral health services for uninsured, lowincome adults of the New River Valley. Project goals included the expansion of preventative and primary oral health services inr]uding oral health needs assessment, cancer screening, prophies, periodontal planing/scaling and soft tissue management, radiographs, restorations, extractions, dry socket treatments and nutritional/oral health counseling. A related objective was to increase access for oral health services through the Radford University Family Health Clinics, and the Mobile Health Unit. The secondary goal of the project was to train Network members, community providers and students in oral health education, screening and referral services. A community network was developed including Radford University's Waldron College of Health and Human Services, the Free Clinic of the New River Valley, Public Health Departments and Departments of Social Services in the New River Health District, the Dental Hygiene Schools of Virginia Western and Wytheville Community Colleges, and local network of twenty volunteer dentists. The project period is from May 2003 through April2006-05. During this initial three-year period, the community network had a significant impact on increasing dental services through the Free Clinic of the New River Valley Dental program, increasing access points for oral health education, screening, and referral, and addressing the disparities in oral health among the low income, uninsured, rural adults of the New River Valley.