Lake County Public Health
“Implementing First Tooth has gone really well. Staff members are all trained and willing to assist families. I've incorporated First Tooth into my WIC appointments as well, including education and applying varnish. It goes right along with the nutrition education, bottle mouth, ect.,” said Andrienne Thornton of Lake County Public Health. First Tooth is currently implemented successfully in 5 county clinics. Providers are sure to follow-up with patients in 3-6 months or based on need.
“Personally, my favorite part of First Tooth is educating parents and children on the importance of dental care and helping them follow through with their regular dental appointments.”
Deschutes County Health
“The training could not have come at a better time,” said Sarah Holloway, RN and Supervisor of the Home Visiting Nurses program in Deschutes County. “Title V funding has indicated that oral health will be one of the initiatives that will be focused on in the upcoming year. Having Tiffany Foy (First Tooth trainer) in place…has been a constant plus.”
“The dotphrase that was available on your website was very helpful in implementing with our Electronic Health Record. Having that document readily available reminds the nurse to do the exams.”
Sarah reported that more of her nurses are doing oral exams and applying fluoride varnishes during home visits. “We have also refocused our efforts to ready the fluoride varnish kits for nurse to take out on home visits and added the correct billing codes to our current forms.”
“We can make a tremendous difference in children’s lives by preventing dental decay. Primary care providers should be excited about prevention, and the benefit of this area of prevention is overwhelming.”
Mid-Valley Children's Clinic
Mid-Valley Children’s Clinic was trained in September 2015. “The First tooth implementation has gone much more smoothly than we anticipated. Applying the fluoride varnish during well child checkups has not required a lot of time or effort,” reported Ed Frothingham, Mid-Valley Children’s Clinic Medical Director. “We’ve also noticed that we are addressing dental health more as a result of the training. We are definitely recommending first dental visits at a younger age than previously.”
Enthusiasm for the project has been universal throughout the staff. “Severe childhood dental decay is a discouraging problem to see in the office, since it’s so easily preventable,” said Ed.
By integrating counseling about teeth and documentation of fluoride varnish application into the well child checkup templates in the electronic medical record system, First Tooth has been streamlined into clinic workflow.
Southern Oregon Pediatrics
Southern Oregon Pediatrics is feeling confident about their successful First Tooth implementation. “We have really gotten down our workflow as a clinic on these oral assessments and fluoride varnish applications,” reported Brenda Sankey. The providers are conducting oral assessments at 1 year of age as part of the well-child exam. This continues once a year until the child turns 6. The clinic also applies varnish on children at 1 year, 18 months, and 2 years. Congratulations on fighting early childhood caries, Southern Oregon Pediatrics!