Provider updates

Clackamas County Health Centers (CCHC) has been hosting fun and innovative Saturday dental clinics to help get sealant-aged children into the dental chair. For their Saturday clinic in August, CCHC identified sealant-aged children who hadn’t had a dental visit yet this year and scheduled them for a Back to School day. In addition to their cleanings and sealants, kids were able to take home a goody bag full of school supplies to start the school year.

Ruth Mercado, CCHC Dental Navigator, uses CareOregon Dental member assignment rosters to schedule sealant-aged patients in clinics. Once she makes the patient call list, she spends time connecting with parents to schedule the kids. Ruth said that parents were very excited to hear about the free school supplies they could receive at their dental visit. “Parents were eager to schedule a visit for our Back to School Saturday. They loved the offer of school supplies combined with a health care visit!”

In October, CCHC hosted the Fall Harvest Saturday clinic during which every child was able to choose their own pumpkin to take home. “I have to say that overall, the parents weren’t as excited to come in for a pumpkin as they were for the school supplies, but the kids did have big smiles when they picked out their pumpkins.”

Whether it’s school supplies or pumpkins, we appreciate the efforts being done by our partners to help some of our most vulnerable patients, children, receive dental care. We really are Better Together.