Children's Oral Health Program

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Placer County Children’s Oral Health Program (PCCOHP) involves two core components: (1) Providing dental prevention and education services for low-income children using WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) as the entry point for dental care, and (2) Establishing a county-wide oral health community collaborative. (1) Prevention and Education – Using the WIC Early Entry into Dental Care Program model, the PCCOHP integrates on-site oral health education strategies with other WIC services to prevent dental disease in infants and young children of low-income families. WIC is used as the entry point for oral health assessment, preventive services, and referral for follow-up care. Through a partnership with a local Denti-Cal dental provider, Rockville Smiles, the program seeks to: • Increase the number of children 0-5 receiving preventive dental services and early dental care; • Increase caregiver knowledge of preventive oral health strategies; • Develop a sustainable model integrated with WIC services and enable WIC to serve as an early entry point for oral health services; • Create dental homes through referrals from WIC sites. (2) Community Collaborative –The Placer County Children’s Oral Health Alliance is the first community-based collaborative in the county to target children’s oral health issues. It was formed to concentrate a community focus on the problem, create alliances among those who don’t typically work together, and pool existing resources to maximize the potential to impact the problem. The main goal of the Alliance is to bring about more effective and efficient delivery of oral health services for children in Placer County and eliminate unnecessary duplication of efforts. The Alliance brings together over 25 partners from local organizations, including healthcare, community based organizations, public health agencies, and service providers currently connected to the 0-5 year-old population. Supporting the model of services at WIC facilities has been the first action of this Alliance.