Community Health Worker job available at Ready, Set, Smile. Full job description and application info below:
CHW Job Description
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Category: Uncategorized
INVITATION:
CELEBRATE THE ACHIEVEMENTS of ADT Dental’s non-profit organization READY, SET, SMILE and DR. DELLA TORRE ~
A Garden Reception
Presentation of the national DentaQuest Health Equity Hero Award
Sunday, September 26, 2021
3-4:30 p.m.
SW Minneapolis (details provided when you RSVP)
Sponsored by Elevate Oral Care
If you’d like to join us please contact bbrown@readysetsmile.org
The event will feature a brief award presentation at 3:45 p.m. We’ll have an interactive tour of Ready, Set, Smile’s services, including an on-site clinic and a classroom lesson.|
Don’t miss this special opportunity to “see” our work in the community and meet our staff including our dental therapist and community health workers, our Board if Directors and our new Operations Director Ann Copeland. Our guests will also learn more about how our program is reducing health disparity in our community.
Due to COVID concerns, masks are recommended and the event will be outside, physically distanced.
We’d love to see you!
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Thank You Elevate Oral Care!
THANK YOU Elevate Oral Care for sponsoring the DentaQuest Award celebration on Sunday, September 26, 2021 honoring the work of Dr. Della Torre and ADT’s non-profit organization, Ready, Set, Smile. Partnerships like these help to make our community stronger.
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Then and Now
Our “Leaders Extraordinaire,” caring for patients and going strong for more than 22 years! Thank you Dr. Ottavi and Dr. Della Torre.
With great appreciation, we are happy to share the 2020 Prospectus for Ready, Set, Smile, a Minnesota non-profit organization founded by ADT Dental.
Dr. Adele Della Torre was invited to write a newsletter article for The AARP Purpose Prize Alumni Newsletter:
Ready Set Smile is a community-based organization whose mission is to improve the oral health of children through school-based onsite dental services and classroom education. RSS partners with 27 Minneapolis schools (preschool through 8th grade) that serve high numbers of children without access to dental care.
Our work has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, but this health crisis has also given us clarity on the importance of our mission. The pandemic has amplified the racial inequities throughout our nation and my home city, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Further, the site of George Floyd’s killing is just blocks from Ready, Set, Smile’s office and so we are acutely aware of the heightened issues resulting from racial tensions in the community. We are pleased that Minneapolis has become an epicenter of a growing wave of racial justice awareness. I cannot help but connect the health disparities that our nonprofit fights with the hope that rises from our community’s actions to combat COVID and racial injustice.
Most people are unaware that dental decay is the most prevalent chronic childhood disease and is concentrated in children who lack access to preventive dental care. In fact, research shows that 80% of decay occurs in 15-20% of our children, almost all of whom live in poverty. Although children rarely die from dental infections, dental decay is one of the most common reasons for missing school and is therefore a disruptor of an afflicted child’s education. Our data confirms these facts, as 56% of the children seen in our schools have active decay at their first visit with us. Dental decay is a disease that is 100% preventable, but the systemic barriers to access dental care make good oral health difficult to achieve.
What does a school-based portable dental clinic do when schools are closed? We pivot.
● We are seeking alternative sites in institutions such as community centers, daycare centers, congregations, teen-parent programs and teen homeless shelters.
● A local orthodontist has loaned us his office to serve children on the two days each week it is not in use.
● We are piloting setting up our portable clinic in our current office space for the children in our immediate neighborhood.
● We are pursuing designation as a Telehealth provider in order to provide oral health education to families and schools.
● We will modify our traditional clinic schedules to accommodate school hybrid scheduling.
Although these alternatives require a dramatic shift from our school-based model, we believe that the spirit of our mission requires that we continue to bring dental care to children in locations where they feel comfortable. A child’s oral health is critical to their self-esteem, their ability to thrive and to have a future of good health. Each of us do what we do best to purposefully improve our world.
The pandemic has forced innovative solutions. We are an organization that heals our community. Our solutions to this health disparity are simple. Good oral health impacts a child’s ability to learn, to smile, to nourish and improves the future of their overall health. Focus on what you do best to purposefully improve the world.
With great appreciation, I present this fiscal year-end report on ADT Dental’s nonprofit,
Ready Set Smile.
Dr. Adele Della Torre
Mission: Ready Set Smile prepares and empowers all children to care for their oral health through onsite school-based clinics and education. We believe that with preventive services and a caring environment, all children can be free of dental disease.
2017-18 Fiscal Year Report
RSS has completed its fifth school year serving Minneapolis schools with low-resourced families, a population that faces many barriers to accessing routine dental care. In September 2017, we added 4 schools for a total of 9 elementary schools and 5 early childhood programs. All children who are registered for our services receive cleanings, atraumatic decay arresting procedures, fluoride treatments, sealants and one-on-one oral hygiene instruction. This summer we are adding 3 additional preschools and one Northside elementary school.
This last school year we treated 1219 children and provided classroom education to 2500 children and parents of preschoolers with modules on the science and lifestyle for good oral health. All were taught by our Community Health Workers (CHW).
Children diagnosed with urgent dental needs were referred to one of our partnering clinics. Our CHWs are critical to the successful response rate from our families. They are relevant to our families because they represent the Latino, Somali, Hmong and African American communities.
This year we have two new outstanding partners: Southside Community Health Services, a federally-funded medical and dental clinic, is providing us their Mobile Clinic at no cost. They were impressed with our outreach success and asked how we could collaborate. We have used their 2-dental operatory “RV” on several occasions. This upcoming school year, we will have access to their mobile unit as needed. Southside has invited us to collaborate on a grant for this upcoming year. They are also setting up one Saturday a month, starting in September, for Ready Set Smile registrants’ families to receive comprehensive dental care — with or without insurance!
The University of Minnesota – School of Dentistry (U of M-SOD) has chosen RSS as a community partner for a 2018 Health Disparities Grant and a Grand Challenge Grant. As the community organization, we provide the schools and services and U of M staff provides the rigorous academic evaluation to demonstrate that we are improving the oral health of children.
Bailee Jerger, a graduate student at the U of M-SOD, has taken on RSS as her Capstone Project. Over the next year she will be studying our financials and employees’ division of labor to assess the viability of a school-based dental program based on a detailed cost analysis.
Ready Set Smile will be featured on the website of a prestigious national organization, ASTDD (Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors). Dr. Della Torre submitted a description of our program at the request of the Minnesota Department of Health in December. We are now published on their website under Best Practice Approach Report – fluoride use in school programs. Our program’s practices is publicly available on a national forum as a best practice school-based program.
Incredibly, 35% of the children we serve are uninsured. Most of these children are immigrants to our country who do not understand our systems or fear government programs. Others do not understand that they must renew their child’s medicaid insurance and still others fall into the donut hole of earning too much for MNSure, but are unable to afford dental services. Our services are available to all families at no cost, so this is a heavy burden on our program. This year our CHWs were certified as insurance navigators to help families register or renew health and dental insurance for our families.
Finally, over our first four years we have reduced the incidence of decay by 25% and reduced the number of children with active decay by 30%. Between this school year and last, we reduced the number of children with urgent needs (abscessed teeth, reported pain, or severe decay) by 7%. We will receive our 5th school year’s data analysis in the fall.
The dentists of ADT Dental are honored to work with the skilled, Verny Martinez, DT. She is equally appreciated by her patients whose care she oversees under the supervision of ADT Dental dentists. The first part of this blog tells the story of what motivated Verny to become a dental therapist. The second part describes the new profession of dental therapy.
Who is Verny Martinez, DT?
Verny’s career in the dental field began in the U.S. Army where she was selected to be trained as a dental assistant and a dental hygienist. In the military, she gained valuable dental experience, providing dental care to various personnel throughout the country, impoverished communities in Nicaragua, and local nationals in Iraq.
After seeing the extent of dental needs in multiple populations and remembering her personal dental history as a child, Verny was motivated to concentrate on preventive dentistry and extending care to the underserved. The new Dental Therapy profession in Minnesota sparked her interest, as it focused on just that. In a leap of faith, she and her husband moved from their home State of California to Minnesota where Verny could be educated as a DT at the U of M School of Dentistry.
Verny admits that seeing patients who have not been to a dental office in many years does come with its challenges, but knowing she can make a difference is definitely worthwhile. “I was the kid with cavities… the one that needed baby teeth removed, stainless steel crowns, a space maintainer, and fillings. It’s sad seeing patients with so much tooth decay because I was once in their shoes, but I’m glad to be a part of such a rewarding profession that enables me to help people get out of pain, prevent cavities, and teach them about maintaining a healthy mouth.”
What is a dental therapist?
The dental therapist is a licensed oral health professional who practices within a dental setting to provide education, clinical and therapeutic patient services to children and adults. Although Alaska has had dental therapists for the last 12 years that serve on Tribal Nation Reservations, Minnesota was the very first state to license this new profession. The State of Minnesota established dental therapy in 2009 to increase access to populations that face barriers to dental care such as low income, uninsured, and underserved. This midlevel dental professional is comparable to a Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner in the medical field.
Why did ADT Dental Hire a DT?
Our mission is to serve all people in our community which is a beautifully diverse population. Having a dental therapist helps us to welcome all as patients and allows our dentists to concentrate on more complex dental procedures. We are able to increase our care to the underserved. ADT Dental was the second private practice in the State of Minnesota to hire a dental therapist.
As important to us is training our DT to become an Advanced Dental Therapist, (ADT*). Our goal is to have an ADT run the school-based clinics of our nonprofit, Ready, Set, Smile. An ADT will be able to serve the children cost effectively, bringing them the dental services they would otherwise not receive. Once Verny is employed in the schools, we’ll be giving some of her ADT Dental hours to a new DT to develop another future ADT.
What can a dental therapist do?
A dental therapist can assess a patient’s clinical situation to prepare the dentist who determines the final diagnosis. The DT can take x-rays and restore decayed teeth with fillings. In children, they can also extract teeth and place stainless steel crowns. A dental therapist works under the supervision of a dentist. Their licensure has two tiers because a Dental Therapist over time can be certified as an Advanced Dental Therapist (ADT). But even more complicating a DT can have a dental hygiene degree as well.
Here is a more detailed explanation.
Dental Therapist vs Dual Licensed Dental Therapist
A dual licensed dental therapist has both a license in dental hygiene and dental therapy.
As the profession evolves, it appears to be trending towards all dental therapist having dual licensure. There are two educational institutions in Minnesota training dental therapists: U of M School of Dentistry and Metro State. The Metro State program only accepts dental hygienists into their program, so all DT’s who graduate from the Metro State Program have both licenses. The U of M program is currently in transition from a degree in dental therapy only to dual licensure. So in the future, it is likely that all new dental therapists will also have a degree in dental hygiene.
Dental Therapist (DT) vs Advanced Dental Therapist (ADT) *
When a dental therapist graduates and receives their license, they must work under the supervision of a dentist for their first 2000 hours of employment. Once this is completed, they have the option to take additional training and a test to become an Advanced Dental Therapist (ADT). As an ADT they can diagnose and work independently within their scope of practice, supervising other dental professionals.
It is with great pleasure that the ADT Dental team supports and introduces dental therapy to our patients and our community. This new profession will help to lift the people of Minnesota to a healthier oral condition.
*The ADT of ADT Dental and ADT of Advanced Dental Therapist. are coincidentally indentical acronyms. ADT Dental is based on the intials of the founding dentist, Adele Della Torre.
Rewarding news regarding the prevention of dental decay and the improvement of dental health in kids comes to us through a pediatrician. Dentists should take notice. The American Public Health Association honored 80-year-old Minnesota pediatrician, Dr. Amos Deinard, with a national lifetime achievement award for public health dentistry. Dr. Deinard is a hero for taking professional responsibility for “the silent epidemic” of dental decay. He advocates children receive fluoride varnish treatments at their routine pediatric visits. He is quoted in Gail Rosenblum Star Tribune article as saying, “Tooth decay doesn’t kill a lot of people, but low-income kids are missing school due to an abscessed tooth, with pain so bad they can’t study. Then they go to the emergency room and are treated for the pain and sent home with advice to see their dentist. But everyone knows there is no dentist who will take them.”
At ADT Dental, we too are taking professional responsibility for this epidemic through our nonprofit Ready Set Smile. In Minnesota 55% of third graders have dental decay, however, the majority of these children come from low resource families. The application of fluoride varnish is recommended four times each year for children at high risk for dental decay. Through Ready Set Smile, we are able to bring this service directly into the schools with low resource populations. These families can be guaranteed access to this simple treatment that prevents decay.
The staff of ADT Dental and Ready Set Smile thank Dr. Amos Deinard for his leadership and congratulate him on this lifetime achievement award!
To read Gail Rosenblum’s article about Dr. Amos Deinard go to:
http://m.startribune.com/rosenblum-a-hero-for-kids-dental-health/351415341/