Delta Dental Community Care Foundation supports access to quality oral health care through annual grants program

Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County uses some grant funding from the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation to support their Smile Mobile, the organization’s mobile dental unit. Mobile dental units like the Smile Mobile play an important role in advancing access to dental care services for underserved communities.

Through its 2024-2025 Access to Care Grants Program, the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation granted $16.3 million in funding to 215 nonprofit organizations across the 15 states and Washington, D.C. where Delta Dental of California and affiliates operates. This program is intended to increase and safeguard access to quality, affordable oral health care.

What does the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation do and support?

The Community Care Foundation’s strategic themes for 2024 are to:
 

1. Drive health equity via programs focused on seniors, special populations and health disparities.
2. Support innovative and preventative care programs to advance new technologies and methods to improve dental health outcomes.
3. Strengthen rural community programs aimed at enhancing dental care services in rural and underserved areas.
    

The Access to Care Grants, focused on the oral health crisis among older adults, health equity and rural oral health access, enable the Community Care Foundation’s partners to continue providing vital and beneficial services to those most in need in the communities they serve.

How does the program make a difference in our communities?

The impact of Access to Care grants reaches beyond a monetary contribution. Grant awards are elements of long-term relationships that drive tangible benefits for nonprofits, patients, students and communities – including six-year-old Flora, who received oral health care through Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County in California.

When Flora visited the organization’s Garden Grove clinic a few weeks before her sixth birthday, she was experiencing dental pain and discomfort. Upon examination, the Healthy Smiles team learned that she had progressive dental decay, which led to multiple abscessed teeth requiring extractions. Because Flora has asthma, the team quickly conducted a consultation with her physician to ensure she was a good candidate for dental treatment under general anesthesia. Once cleared, Flora’s mother stated that she wanted to take the first available appointment to alleviate Flora’s pain – even if that meant surgery on her birthday.

On her sixth birthday, Flora’s care team extracted nine of her 20 baby teeth, placed five crowns and completed one filling. Now experiencing relief, Flora and her mother are grateful for the personalized dental treatment provided by Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County.

Stories like Flora’s are just one example of how the Community Care Foundation’s work contributes to Delta Dental of California and affiliates’ overall purpose: to improve health by providing access to quality care.

If you would like to learn more, you may read our full press release  here.