...SDF treatment is a tool doctors can use to prevent more harmful outcomes and gain time to find and access dental homes for their patients.
Sally A. Kraft, MDDartmouth Health’s Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity (CARHE) recently received an $8,000 grant from the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation to provide training in the use of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) for oral health to pediatric and adult healthcare providers in New Hampshire and Vermont. This project will address well-documented oral health needs for children and adults in both states.
“We’re grateful to the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation for their financial support for this work,” said Sally A. Kraft, MD, Dartmouth Health’s vice president of population health. “SDF is a safe, non-invasive treatment that can arrest the progression of dental decay and prevent early cavities from progressing to stages that require emergency care for young children and adults. Understanding that most young children and adults are seen regularly in healthcare settings, and knowing many families aren’t established with a dental practice, SDF treatment is a tool doctors can use to prevent more harmful outcomes and gain time to find and access dental homes for their patients.”
Annually, about 450 young children in New Hampshire are treated in hospital emergency departments for advanced, painful cavities, and more than 1,000 Medicaid-enrolled young children in Vermont are treated for extractions, endodontics, or restorations, with about one in four of these children treated in a hospital setting. Oral healthcare for adults continues to be identified in Community Needs Assessments as a significant health need, particularly for those who lack dental insurance.
“CARHE has been working for the past year with the Vermont Oral Health Program, as well as providers in New Hampshire and Vermont, to train clinicians to offer and provide SDF care to their patients and families,” said Gregory A. Norman, Dartmouth Health’s senior director of community health. “This funding from the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation will allow us to provide education and hands-on training to at least four new practices in New Hampshire and Vermont over the next year, including practices serving adults with oral health needs, and continue to support the six practices trained over the past year as they start to implement this care, growing the region’s capacity to offer this innovative treatment as part of routine clinical care.”
“There is a crucial connection between oral health and overall health, so we are excited to support exceptional programs like CARHE,” said Jennifer Beyer, senior manager of corporate giving at Northeast Delta Dental. “By integrating dental care into medical practice, we are able to help improve the overall health and wellness of our community. Thanks to the creators and executors at CARHE for leading the way for this innovative yet crucial approach.”
To learn more about this program, visit bit.ly/4f2pR3X.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.