St. Clare’s joins partnership for child dental care

OCONTO FALLS — Children with complex dental needs and who are uninsured or underinsured will have greater access to care, thanks to a new collaboration between HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls and the Brown County-based Oral Health Partnership.

Oral Health Partnership, a nonprofit founded in Green Bay in 2005, provides underserved children living in Brown County and surrounding counties access to preventive, restorative and emergency dental services at no cost. It offers a school-based dental care program and three clinics, and it partners with the three Green Bay hospitals to provide treatment for complex dental conditions that require an operating room.

Since Oct. 17, those services are now also being provided, one day a week, at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital.

“Oral health is a huge challenge in Wisconsin, and it’s really a nationwide challenge,” said Chris Brabant, St. Clare president and CEO. “We have had a significant number of our patients who, when they need oral treatment, have to go down to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Green Bay to have that surgery. Now some of those oral surgeons are coming right here to the community to operate on those patients.”

About 11% of the children who have had oral surgery at St. Mary’s are from Oconto and surrounding counties, Brabant said.

“Our partnership with OHP means that children who live in our rural, northern communities and in need of this type of care can now access it closer to home,” he said.

This year, the partnership is on track to serve more than 10,000 children and accommodate more than 20,000 dental appointments, said Michael Schwartz, executive director at Oral Health Partnership.

“The addition of HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital to our partnership allows us to treat more children in need of hospital-based care,” Schwartz said. “We are immensely grateful for their partnership, as well as the continued partnership of HSHS St. Vincent and St. Mary’s.”

In early 2018, the wait list for those in need of hospital-based dental care was at more than 250 children. The recent addition of HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital as an OHP partner has helped to reduce the current waiting list to approximately 50 children, Schwartz said.

“Our hospital’s vision is to provide health, healing and hope to all we serve, and we are proud to join our sister hospitals in Green Bay to assist the OHP in providing a service that is greatly needed for underserved children,” Brabant said.

As an OHP partner, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital provides operating room space and the assistance of its surgical staff to physicians at no cost to the partnership or the patient. The nonprofit hospital also obtained a grant from Delta Dental of Wisconsin to purchase the surgical instruments for OHP physicians to perform the necessary procedures.

Procedures may include the treatment of multiple cavities in young children, abscessed teeth and/or tooth extraction.

“In some cases, these complex dental conditions can be life-threatening, and that is why increasing access to this type of care is so important,” Schwartz said.

HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital also provides the services of Child Life Specialists for each child who comes to the hospital to have a dental procedure. Child Life Specialists are specially trained in helping put children who may be anxious about their procedure at ease.

Oral Health Partnership serves children ages 0-19. For information, call 920-965-0831 or visit www.smilegb.org. Underinsured or uninsured adults in need of dental care may contact the N.E.W. Dental Clinic at 920-272-9300.