Thousands of Kids to Get Free Dental Care from Loma Linda U Via New Grant

Thousands of kids ages five and under throughout Riverside County will get free dental care, thanks to a grant given to the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, officials with the school announced Monday.

The grant comes from the First 5 Riverside County Children & Families Commission— known as First 5— and will "expand access to much-needed dental care" for children, according to Herbert Atienza, a spokesman with Loma Linda University Health.

According to Atienza, the grant will be paid out over a period of four years, and will pay for dental health screenings for an estimated 5,500 children a year— plus treatment for about 700 children— taking part in the School of Dentistry’s Riverside County Dental Program.

The money will help dental health professionals do two main things: perform screenings and perform triage on the patients.

“It’s a huge thing for us to be able to provide these services to children in Riverside County,” says Dr. Carla Lidner Baum, assistant professor at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry and the grant’s project director.

According to Baum, it's especially important that the dental workers be able to do preventative care on the children's teeth.

"Primarily, we want to make sure that children do not suffer from pain and infection from decayed teeth, but we also do try everything possible to avoid having to extract the decayed teeth," she said.  "We want to restore and maintain the child’s baby teeth, if at all possible, because if a child loses their primary teeth too early because of decay and need for extraction, then it often happens that the permanent teeth will grow into all of the wrong positions in the mouth, and the child will have crooked and misplaced teeth for life."

First 5, a program which is funded through taxes generated from tobacco sales, is a division of Riverside County Department of Public Social Services and offered the grant to help provide oral care to Riverside County families who can't otherwise afford it.

"Oral health is critical for children’s overall health and their ability to be successful in school," said Harry Freedman, executive director of First 5 Riverside.  "Oral health concerns are a big reason for children’s absence from preschool or kindergarten, and children in pain are not prepared to learn...Loma Linda University School of Dentistry shares our commitment to improving the oral health of the children in our community, and we are very pleased to partner with them.”

The dental program will be offered in local schools, Head Start programs, and child care centers.  For more information about the services offered by First 5, visit their website here.