Dental reimbursement program - 1) as one of the larger general dentistry clinics in the hartford area we receive numerous referrals from outside dentists and facilities

The patients who come to our clinic tend to seek dental care only when they are in pain or are having difficulty chewing. They commonly elect for tooth extractions as this can be done quickly, and is an immediate solution, while going through the more involved procedures needed to save a tooth by completing restorative care can take many visits. For cases where there are a large number of non-restorable teeth, IT is not uncommon to see patients in staged care for multiple appointments. This process however, has the potential to increase the cost of care. One common example is multiple extractions. If a patient needs full mouth extractions, in order to better serve the patient for comfort and healing during this treatment we will perform the extractions at multiple appointments and extract either the top arch or one side of the mouth to allow the patient to eat on the other side of the mouth. If the patient needs IV sedation for each appointment, the total cost of extractions per appointment can be several thousand dollars due to the high cost of providing anesthesia. 2) our primary responsibility is to provide high quality dental care to all our patients. We feel IT is our due diligence to treat the patient's needs independent of their financial status and do not review a patient's ability to pay for services. Rather, as a teaching institution we treat the patient's needs first regardless of their ability to pay. This however, can lead to our treating patients who are unable to meet their financial obligations and this amount is written off as uncollectible by the clinic if the patient does not qualify for any other assistance. 3) preventative care is encouraged and discussed when a patient seeks dental care at our facility. We attempt to educate the patient on prevention, the need for prophylaxis and prov IDE radiographs to identify incipient disease, all of which can prevent the loss of teeth and function. However, this is not always successful. Acute care is, unfortunately, still makes up the higher percentage of appointments, as preventative care is intangible to the patient where as a broken tooth or pain triggers a need to seek dental care. Another reason is the financial burden. When patients do not have, or do not qualify for insurance, they do not want to incur debt for preventative care as IT is not seen as important compared to their immediate financial needs. We are thus requesting ryan white funds to cover part of the costs of the high quality of dental care we provide to these vulnerable patients.