By Kristen Hwang, CalMatters
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Martha Rodriguez spent years searching for a dentist. Several turned her away because she has Down syndrome, and they felt they could not accommodate her.
Her plight, “broke my heart,” said Dr. Maxmillian Chambers, an Imperial County dentist who agreed to treat her.
Today, she is one of his favorite patients at the Innercare community health clinic in El Centro, and she’s inspiring a new investment in care.
Thanks in part to a new state grant, Chambers is opening a dental surgical center for special needs patients in Imperial County and the surrounding areas. The $5 million from the state will cover construction costs for eight chairs and two surgical theaters.
The grant is part of a larger effort to improve dental care for people with developmental disabilities and other special needs. In total $47.2 million has been distributed to 13 dentists and clinics.
“I want to make a difference,” Chambers said. “I don’t want them to have to wait two to three years to see a dentist by which time everything has changed and deteriorated.”
People with special needs such as autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome or even Alzheimer’s are often hypersensitive to lights, sounds and touch — making the dentist a tough place to visit.
Frequently, they need to be sedated during routine exams or desensitized over time. Others with physical disabilities may need specialized equipment such as wheelchair lifts that most dental offices don’t have.
Private dental offices also find it difficult to accept Medi-Cal insurance from disabled patients because it doesn’t pay very well for often complex procedures, limiting patient access even more.
That makes the population one of the most underserved groups in the state, according to the California Dental Association, which advocated for the grant program. Many languish on waiting lists or drive hours to the nearest clinic that will take them, usually only dental schools.
Prior assessments suggest that only 14 California dental schools and surgical centers are equipped to handle patients with special needs, according to the California Dental Association.
“We have a dire need for more facilities that are equipped to serve individuals of all ages who require accommodations that traditional dental offices cannot provide,” said dental association President Max Martinez in a statement. “The Specialty Dental Clinic program is going to transform dental care for patients with special needs in California.”
Another one of Chambers’ patients, Nicole Sing, 30, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Sing’s parents couldn’t find a dentist in Imperial County for their daughter before meeting Chambers and used to drive her across the border to Mexicali for care. She visited the clinic earlier this month, the same day that Rodriguez last met with Chambers.
Chambers said when his new clinic, ImpowerDent SurgiCenters, opens it will be able to serve about 2,100 people annually and will likely bring in patients from Arizona and Mexicali.
“We’re trying to offer something that’s traditionally only seen in educational institutions or hospitals,” Chambers said. “Something more that they’ve never had so close to home.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people in California need special accommodations for dental care.
Approximately one in seven children have special health needs due to chronic physical, developmental or behavioral conditions, according to the California Department of Public Health, although not all of them require specialized dentistry.
Nearly 500,000 individuals with disabilities receive services from the Department of Developmental Services. And California’s senior population includes about 720,000 people with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Generally, it’s more difficult for adults with special needs to find care because dentists who treat adults aren’t trained to meet their needs, but pediatric dentists receive some training.
“Our wait time is horrendous, and it’s not just UCLA, it’s all the major centers that see this population,” said Eric Sung, chair of special patient care at UCLA’s dental school. “Our wait time is in excess of a year.”
UCLA’s Special Patient Care Clinic serves about 1,500 patients per year. About a third of them drive between one to two hours to get to the clinic while another 30% drive more than two hours, Sung said.
The clinic also received a state grant of $4.2 million to expand its capacity. Sung said the money will allow the clinic to add eight additional chairs, quiet rooms with reduced sensory stimuli and wheelchair lifts. Sung projects that the clinic will be able to see 4,000 special needs patients annually with the expansion, more than double the current amount.
The addition of new dental clinics like Chambers’ also means academic dental centers won’t be overwhelmed, Sung said.
“I’m ecstatic. I’m almost speechless because it was such a long journey to get to this point,” Sung said. “I hope this is just the start to help access to care for this population.”
Photographer Zoë Meyers contributed to this story.
Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.