Community dental services are available in a variety of locations to ensure that everyone can access dental health care. Specialized dental services are usually provided by community dental services, such as hospitals, specialized health centers, mobile clinics, and home visits or visits to homes for the elderly. If you have a disability or medical condition, you may need more time, care, or special features to get the right dental treatment. A health center or clinic can provide it.
The Community Dental Service will provide most treatments free of charge. However, a fee will be charged for any private treatment that requires laboratory testing, such as dentures, bridges, and crowns. Dental offices that offer discounts to different patients are at risk of theft, fraud and embezzlement. This is because fraud can easily occur when the same person accepts and processes payments; it can be tempting for a dishonest employee to “exaggerate a little and claim that the patient received a greater discount than what was actually offered” and, at the same time, keep the difference.
You can find more information about this in the GPSTM module that analyzes risk management. There are a variety of resources for dental care, including local health departments, health insurance programs, dental schools, clinical trials, and state and local resources. Organizations such as Smiles Change Lives and Smile for a Lifetime raise funds and receive voluntary support from orthodontists to offer free or reduced cost orthodontic treatment to children who qualify. Certain conditions apply and not all orthodontic offices partner with these organizations.
Learn more directly from these organizations or ask your orthodontist for more information. Normally, the dentist or doctor will write a letter of recommendation and send it, along with letters from the hospital and x-rays, so that the dental team can get an idea of the patient's dental history. The Oral Health Foundation website contains information on all aspects of dental health, including dental care for people with special needs. The National Institutes for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) sometimes seeks volunteers with specific dental, oral, and craniofacial conditions to participate in research studies.
Dental schools (American Dental Association) can be a good source of quality, low-cost dental treatment. Most of these schools have clinics that allow dental students to gain experience in treating patients while providing care at a reduced cost. Dental hygiene schools (American Association of Dental Hygienists) can also offer low-cost, supervised preventive dental care as part of the training experience for dental hygienists. Unlike dental insurance programs, dental savings plans offer discounted services for paying plan members.
Children with learning disabilities or other medical conditions may be referred to a specialized dental service by their doctor or dental team.
