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Free dental clinics to serve students in La Plata County

Program aims to help more than 100 kids this month
The Florida Mesa Elementary School Based Health Center is one of two in the Durango School District. On May 26 at Florida Mesa and May 17 at Durango High School, free dental clinics will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Students can receive cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants.

Any La Plata County students looking for a good price on a dental cleaning need to look no further than the school-based health centers at Durango High School and Florida Mesa Elementary: It’s free.

On May 17 at DHS and May 26 at Florida Mesa, free dental clinics will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Students can receive cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants.

Sponsored by Axis Health System, the school-based health centers have offered a free dental clinic for the past three years. But this year, a grant endowed by the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation should help the clinic reach more children in need.

“It’s going to help our clinics become more well-known because right now, a lot of families don’t know we are a real clinic,” said Kari Bumpus, coordinator of the school-based health centers. “We provide regular services a regular doctor’s office would offer with little or no wait. And usually cheaper.”

Last year, the dental clinic served 60 children between DHS and Florida Mesa, and health officials hope to double that number this year.

“It didn’t seem like all the kids were getting all their oral needs met,” Bumpus said. “By us offering this for free, we can capture more of the under- or uninsured students.”

Liane Jollon, executive director of the San Juan Basin Health Department, said a range of health issues could arise from bad dental care, including tooth decay, gum disease and difficulty chewing, among others. The health department works in conjunction with Axis to hold the clinics.

“Research has documented the oral health disparities between low-income children and their more well-to-do peers,” Jollon said. “Barriers to care are fueled by the small number of dentists who accept Medicaid in proportion to the high number of people needing dental care, both nationally and locally.”

Dr. Travis Nelson at the University of Washington’s Center of Pediatric Dentistry said for lower-income families, free dental clinics are essential. Often overlooked in the health care spectrum, oral health is a key component to overall well-being.

“We really don’t feel like a person can be healthy without a healthy mouth,” he said. “Because if you have a toothache, it’s hard to sleep, eat or concentrate. You just can’t expect good outcomes.”

And with the high cost of health care, especially in dentistry, many families that can’t afford the service ignore the problem, which becomes “episodic in nature,” Nelson said.

“So these programs are really to help the under-insured,” he said. “It’s so important to have those kids in the door. Early preventive care is really instrumental.”

In the 2014-15 school year, nearly 32 percent of students enrolled at the DHS school-based health center were enrolled in Medicaid or Child Health Plan Plus, a program for families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to pay for private health insurance.

By comparison, 25 percent of students enrolled at the DHS school-based health center were on a private health insurance plan, and 43 percent fell under a self-pay category, which could mean they have no insurance or pay through some other means.

And, according to the Colorado Health Institute, 12 percent of all La Plata County students were not enrolled in any health insurance plan.

“We are supposed to be a safety net for kids,” said Bumpus. “So if you don’t have insurance, we have a sliding-scale fee program based on family income.”

Since 2010, Axis Health has served as a medical sponsor for the school-based health centers, in partnership with Durango School District 9-R. Located in an office space within the two schools, the centers offer medical and behavioral health services.

With a staff of about six, the clinic spends about 20 hours a week at DHS, and around 12 hours a week at Florida Mesa. During the 2014-15 school year, the center at DHS saw a total of 390 students for 1,298 visits.

“What a lot of people don’t realize, is any person age 0-21 can come in at either health center,” Bumpus said. “You don’t have to be a student.”

jromeo@durangoherald.com

This story has been corrected to reflect that health insurance statistics applied to students attending the school-based health center at Durango High School, not all students at the school.



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