Dental News - New clinic will serve needs of developmentally disabled patients

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 28 June 2011

save

RANCHO MIRAGE, CA, USA: Desert Friends of the Developmentally Disabled will open a dental clinic in mid-July that will provide free dental services to developmentally disabled children and adults. “We already have a waiting list of nearly 100 people from throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties who are in desperate need of dental care,” said Marianne Benson, co-founder of the Rancho Mirage-based non-profit group.

The clinic will be behind the Rancho Las Palmas Shopping Center in an office building at 42-900 Bob Hope Drive, Suite 111.

Desert Friends of the Developmentally Disabled signed a three-year lease on the 1,200-square-foot office, which is being renovated right now in preparation for a mid-July opening.

“We’ll start off with two dental chairs, but we will eventually expand to four,” Benson said.

California has 240,000 disabled children and adults, 24,000 of whom reside in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. About 1,500 of them live in the Coachella Valley.

“Adults over 21 have lost most of their medical and dental healthcare benefits as a result of state budget cuts during the past three years,” Benson said. “We’re trying to help them by providing dental care, though we hope to eventually provide other healthcare services as we recruit more volunteers.”

While disabled children still have their medical and dental benefits, it is very difficult to find dentists willing to work on them, Benson said, adding that Desert Friends of the Developmentally Disabled has initially focused on providing free dental services, since state statistics indicate that 88 percent of disabled children and adults have unmet dental needs.

State lawmakers have eliminated numerous medical and dental services for developmentally disabled adults, including all dental services, speech therapy services, podiatric services, audiology services, chiropractic services, acupuncture services, optometric and optician services, psychological services as well as incontinence creams and washes. Lawmakers have also proposed cutting additional services for developmentally disabled adults this year in an effort to reduce the state budget deficit.

“All of this is happening,” Benson said, “because this is a population that cannot speak up for themselves. So their services are among the first to be cut.”

To post a reply please login or register

A clinic shows that the developmentally disabled can be treated without anesthesia

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., USA: When 40-year-old Tina Lumbley of Moreno Valley went to the We Care Dental Center for a filling last September, it was the first ...

At last: A fully robotic toothbrush for disabled patients

KRIENS, Switzerland: According to World Health Organization data, almost 45% of the global population has some form of oral disease. For people with a ...

Gift will fund children’s dental clinic at University of Minnesota

EAGAN, MN, USA: Delta Dental of Minnesota Trust recently announced a gift of $3.5 million to the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry to fund the ...

OHA holds event on Capitol Hill focusing on needs of older adults

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA: To celebrate the launch of the annual Fall for Smiles campaign and bring attention to the country’s lack of oral health care ...

BING Innovations releases white paper on special needs patients

BING Innovations, maker of the revolutionary DentalVibe Injection Comfort System, have announced the release of a new white paper, Special Needs Dentistry: ...

Kumar to serve as California’s new state dental director

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA: Gov. Jerry Brown recently announced that Jayanth V. Kumar, DDS, MPH, will serve as California’s new state dental director. ...

ADA seeks hundreds of volunteers for dental clinic in New Orleans

CHICAGO, Ill., USA: The American Dental Association (ADA) is rallying its membership to join a Mission of Mercy (MOM) charity dental clinic on Sunday, Nov. ...

JADA explains need for new definition of oral health

CHICAGO, Ill., USA: An editorial in the December 2016 issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) discusses the FDI Dental World ...