Cass Community Health Foundation Provides Teledentistry Despite COVID-19 Barriers
February 4, 2021 | School-Based Health Success Story
Cass Community Health Foundation and their aligned Cass County Dental Clinic (CCDC) serve children in Cass County & Grandview, just south of Kansas City, Missouri. In November 2020, they implemented a school-based teledentistry program through the CCDC upon receiving funding from the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services and Health Forward Foundation.
Despite school closures, social distancing, and other operational challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has served 88 students (with Medicaid or no dental insurance) across the Belton & Grandview C-4 school districts.
In addition to growing in popularity in recent years, teledentistry has been a critical service delivery model for oral health providers throughout COVID-19. Using teledentistry equipment, dental hygienists who work in school settings can capture images, videos, and/or x-rays during their visits to schools, allowing the dentist to examine them later to assess and develop a treatment plan. In school-based settings, the dentist may then schedule time to come to the school to provide the necessary care or the student is referred to the provider’s main dental clinic to receive treatment.
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Thus far, 65 students have been identified by the dental team to have issues requiring care, the majority of whom were referred to receive services from the foundation’s main dental clinic, Cass County Dental Clinic (CCDC) in Belton. As of January 12th, 2021, over 15 students had already either completed their treatment plans or were scheduled to do so. CCDC’s Outreach Coordinator and Patient Care Coordinator continue to outreach to families to coordinate follow-up appointments, which has been a challenge.
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Katie Schroeder, RDH, the Director of Dental Programs with Cass Community Health Foundation, attributes their early success to the existing relationships they have with their school communities. “We have been partnering with both of these districts since 2006 on addressing dental health access,” she explained, “So, when we started to talk with them about teledentistry and then actually implementing the program, they were very open to supporting us when we’re in the schools.”
Katie and her team also feel their efforts to promote teledentistry via the school districts’ social media and other communication channels helped to spread the word and, that allowing parents/guardians to complete consent forms electronically helped to collect them, especially since access to physical school buildings are limited for parents/guardians due to COVID.
The team aims to serve an additional 110 students before the end of the 2021 spring semester with additional funding from Delta Dental Foundation supporting program expansion long-term.
Molly Imming, MOSBHA Training & Technical Assistance Manager | [e]mimming@moschoolhealth.org
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