Jefferson County’s youngest residents will have better access to dental services thanks to a $200,000 grant awarded to Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics.
The Port Angeles-based nonprofit, which has been serving Jefferson County residents since its inception, will expand its presence in East Jefferson County through the Access to Baby and Child Dentistry program.
VIMO received the grant from the Washington Dental Service Foundation to hire a program coordinator to link Clallam and Jefferson County dentists with children who need their services.
“It’s just the connector piece,” said Larry Little, VIMO executive director.
“It tries to connect clients to providers who are willing to provide the service.”
The coordinator, Susan Gile of Port Angeles, will work with community organizations to identify Medicaid-eligible children ages birth to 6.
Access to Baby and Child Dentistry also recruits and trains specialists to work with babies and young kids, and teaches primary care doctors to deliver preventive oral health care at checkups, according to www.abcd-dental.org.
The two North Olympic Peninsula counties were the last in the state to obtain the Access to Baby and Child Dentistry program.
“We have tried to get it started in Clallam and Jefferson counties at various times over the last decade and just could not find an agency or organization that was able to staff it,” said Dr. Tom Locke, public health officer for both counties.
“Elsewhere in the state, it’s been a very successful program at getting children in to see dentists at earlier ages.”
The VIMO clinic in Port Angeles serves about 1,600 patients who don’t have adequate health insurance annually.
It provides primary care, dental care, acute care, mental health care and other services for people in both counties.
“A lot of parents have a mistaken notion that children don’t need to see a dentist until they are 3 or 4,” he added, “when in fact, we know that it’s very important that children start to be seen when their teeth emerge,” before age 1.
Of the North Olympic Peninsula children whose families are on Medicaid, only about a quarter are being seen by a dentist.
Little said the goal of Access to Baby and Child Dentistry is to drive that number above 50 percent.
“We’d love to see it at 100 percent,” he added.
Little has been working with the Washington Dental Service Foundation to set up the Access to Baby and Child Dentistry program for the past nine months.
VIMO used a portion of the grant to hire Gile to coordinate the program in both counties.
“We’re already making contacts in Brinnon and Chimacum, and we’re working with the Olympic Peninsula Dental Society,” Little said.
He added that Gile already is well-connected to the North Olympic Peninsula dental community and is “the person I envisioned having the tools to make this program successful.”
JC MASH, a volunteer-driven nonprofit that provides primary care for those who can’t afford it or lack insurance at free clinics in Port Townsend and Port Hadlock, does not offer dental services.
For more information on Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics, phone 360-457-4431 or visit www.vimoclinic.org.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
