By Cheryl Powell, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Jun. 26–When people show up in the emergency room at Akron hospitals with intense, throbbing tooth pain, doctors usually don’t have the tools or training to cure their problem.
Patients with dental emergencies are often given pain medicine or antibiotics and sent home with instructions to call a dentist — if they have one or can afford one.
A new hospital-based program soon will start filling the gap when it comes to oral health care in the community.
Summa Health System is opening its new Summa Center for Dental Health on July 9 in its Professional Center North building, located across from Akron City Hospital on Arch Street.
Along with providing dental care to people with and without dental insurance, the center also will serve as a training ground for dental school graduates who want to advance their education by completing a yearlong general dentistry residency.
The center has state-of-the-art equipment for the new dentists to provide everything from simple fillings to more complex procedures, including root canals, oral surgeries, dental implants, crowns, bridges and gum treatments, said Marvin D. Cohen, an Akron-area dentist and director of Summa’s dental residency program.
“We’ll do everything a general dentist would do in their own private practice,” he said. Practicing dentists from throughout the community will always be on hand to oversee the residents, Cohen said.
Complex problems
Dentists aren’t required to complete a residency after finishing dental school to start practicing in the vast majority of states, including Ohio.
But the additional training is becoming increasingly important as dentists use more high-tech equipment and treat patients who are living longer with more complex medical problems, Cohen said.
In addition to their dental experience, the residents will rotate through other medical areas of the hospital.
“A dentist needs to know not just about a patient’s teeth,” Cohen said. “They need to know about the general health.”
The program comes at a time when Summit County continues to struggle with providing emergency dental care to residents who can’t afford it.
Akron Community Health Resources recently was forced to shutter its low-cost dental clinic, which catered primarily to low-income patients without any dental insurance.
“ACHR basically had to go out of business for dental care, so it left this big hole,” said Thomas J. Strauss, Summa’s president and chief executive. “… Summa has stepped up to fill the need.”
The Ohio Department of Health has identified dental care as the state’s No. 1 unmet health need for children and adults.
Along with the risk of toothaches, infections and tooth loss, poor oral health care also has been linked to a host of other medical problems, such as cardiovascular disease and preterm births.
“I think there is a real need for dental care in this community,” said Dr. Joseph Zarconi, Summa’s vice president for medical education and research. “… People who don’t otherwise have access to dental care end up getting into dental problems or complications from dental problems. Then they end up in the emergency room or even hospitalized for problems that could have been prevented with general dental care.”
Canton program
In Canton, Mercy Medical Center also is launching a one-year general dental residency program at its dental clinic, which opened on the hospital campus this year.
The Canton clinic grew out of the Sisters of Charity Foundation’s Bethlehem Project, which started three years ago to address Stark County’s oral health needs.
Project organizers estimate 80,000 Canton-area residents — including low-income residents, Medicaid enrollees, the elderly, the mentally challenged and developmentally disabled people — are at risk for not getting enough dental care.
Most of the $1.2 million price tag for the new Canton clinic was funded by donations, including grants from the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton, the Austin Bailey Foundation, the Timken Foundation, the Stark County Dental Society, the Ohio Dental Association and the Anthem Foundation.
Last year, about 3,000 patients came to Mercy’s ER with dental problems, said Robert A. Woods, director of the hospital’s dental residency program.
“You can get them up to the clinic and take care of their problems so they don’t become repeat emergency room users,” he said.
Day or night
Summa’s practice will take private insurance and Medicaid. A sliding-fee scale also will be offered to qualified patients without insurance.
But the dental residents will take turns being on call, meaning they’ll be available day or night to respond to dental problems among inpatients or ER patients, Cohen said.
The facility has six examining rooms, including one area that is large enough to accommodate a hospital bed.
The office is entirely paperless, with everything from the patients’ files to their X-rays stored electronically.
Summa is spending about $750,000 to renovate and equip the 3,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art dental center and another $800,000 per year to run and staff it, Zarconi said.
He expects the program to break even after about four years.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or [email protected].
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