CDA Cares in Anaheim

Our WesternU Students had a great time volunteering for CDA Cares this past weekend!

From the CDA Foundation:

On behalf of the CDA Foundation and all of the individuals who received oral health services, thank you for being a part of CDA Cares Anaheim. Together, we changed lives. We hope you know how much your contributions helped patients, and you found the experience to be rewarding.

Please accept our sincere thanks and our invitation to join us at the next CDA Cares in Modesto, October
26-27, 2018.

If anyone asks you any questions, as students, regarding the event, please reference to these FAQs:

How can I receive services at CDA Cares?
Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis so you need to wait in line. We strive to open the clinic at 5:30 a.m. to process patients. We see hundreds of patients each day of the clinic. Please be prepared to wait several hours for service. We strongly encourage you to come early. Be sure to bring all prescribed medications, snacks and water. Access to bathrooms will be provided.

Can I register early for treatment?
To serve as many patients as possible, CDA Cares will start prescreening patients at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26. Patients who come on Thursday afternoon may be able to get a head start on the clinic process and receive a wristband to begin treatment Friday at 5:30 a.m. If you aren't able to be prescreened, please plan to come line up as a new patient on Friday or Saturday to receive treatment. Everyone who is not prescreened will be seen on a first-come, first-served basis Friday and Saturday morning and can line up as early as 3 a.m. No wristband needed.

What services are offered at CDA Cares?
The main goal is to improve people's overall health by relieving pain and eliminating infection. We provide extractions, fillings and cleanings. On a limited basis, we also provide temporary partial dentures (stayplates for front teeth only) without metal reinforcements or replacing front teeth, full dentures and root canals on front teeth. It is unlikely that we will be able to meet all your dental needs.

What if I need to receive treatment right away?
If you have urgent dental needs, do not wait until the clinic to obtain dental care. Delaying critical dental or medical attention could lead to serious health consequences.

To locate a low-cost dental clinic near you: 

• View a list of low-cost dental clinics in the Orance County area
• Search for a clinic by zip code using CDA's listing of California dental clinics
• Visit the California Primary Care Association website

If you have Medi-Cal, you are also likely to have Denti-Cal. To locate a dentist who participates in the Denti-Cal program, visit the Department of Health Care Services website.

Learn more about the patient experience at CDA Cares.

Pizza n’ Such Mixer

Sincere thank you to Tri County Dental Society and TDIC for hosting a mixer for our students! It was great learning from the best representatives of each organization!

TDIC Visits WesternU for Bagel n' Learn

A sincere thank you to TDIC for visiting and bringing bagels for our D4 students!

CDA's New Sponsored Bill SB 1008

CDA is sponsoring SB 1008 by Senator Nancy Skinner to better inform consumers of what value a commercial dental plan provides and to ensure adequate value from these plans. We anticipate that the dental benefit plans will be pushing hard to oppose this measure. To counter them, we are asking CDA members to visit www.cda.org/sb1008 and fill out a form to submit a letter to their state senator supporting the legislation.

Specifically, SB 1008 would:

·        Require all commercial dental benefit plans to provide their beneficiaries with a uniform summary of benefits and coverage – showing how much the plan spends on patient care along with other plan details, including its limitations, exceptions and anticipated out-of-pocket costs for the patient.

·        Enact a “dental loss ratio” (DLR) standard, requiring dental plans to spend at least 70 percent of premium revenue on patient care (as opposed to administrative overhead costs).

Dental patients should know what they are buying and expect reasonable value. It’s time to give them more transparency and hold insurance companies accountable for how they are spending patient premium dollars. These consumer protections and transparency requirements exist for all medical insurance plans, but not commercial dental benefit plans. In fact, while all medical plans must spend at least 80 percent of all premium dollars on patient care, NO minimum requirement exists for commercial dental plans. As a result, one out of four dental plans in the state spends less than 50 percent of premium dollars on patient care, with some falling as low as 4 percent.

TDSC

Hello fellow dental students,

California Dental Association (CDA) always strives to be ahead of the trends and demands of our profession. Most recently, to generate strength in numbers for private practice owners, CDA has created The Dentist Service Company (TDSC). Similar to The Dentist Insurance Company (TDIC), TDSC is a subsidiary of CDA. The main goal of TDSC is to provide services such as private practice advising for human resources, marketing, supplies, and assistance in forming group practices. This allows our CDA members to continue to be competitive in our changing market.

Is private practice ownership something that interests you? Then TDSC is for you!

And this is why:

·       Online Marketplace

o   Similar to Amazon, one-stop shop!

o   25,000+ dental products with negotiated pricing for CDA members

o   Leverages the power of group purchasing

·       Human Resources

·       Specific training and expertise for practice advising

o   Scheduling, budgeting, hygiene, collections, etc

·       Grows your patient base in a competitive market

o   Market research

o   Marketing through an online presence

o   Internal marketing through staff training

TDSC is a contract based service with members who elect to participate. Members are able to pick and choose a plan unique to their office after meeting with a TDSC consultant.

TDSC was created as a response to members’ strong interest in creating a service company to help CDA members continue to be successful in an era when there are large corporate and group practices that have had a competitive edge with the same practice resources through their company. This ensures all clinical-care and practice ownership can still remain with dentists in California for years to come.

Want to learn more?  No problem.

Contact any of your CDA representatives!

-D

CDA Cares, and we invite you to as well!

The California Dental Association and the CDA Foundation is hosting CDA Cares in Anaheim, CA in April 27th-28th, 2018. This event hosts individuals who experience the barriers to obtaining dental care.  At the event, dental professionals and community volunteers provide free dental services to the most deserving population, the underserved and often forgotten about.  One does not have to look far when it comes to finding those who are experiencing social disparities associated with poor oral hygiene.  This is well recognized by CDA, hence these events are organized to seek out the most underserved populations and bring them dental care at no cost.  CDA Cares occurs twice a year hosting an average of 1,950 individuals per event.

In the previous post, Daniel writes about his experiences at CDA Cares event in Bakersfield.  There, $1.25 million dollars were spent on dental services.  1,506 individuals were served.  10,036 procedures were conducted.  This all could not have happened without the support of 1,158 volunteers.

CDA Cares total impact accumulates to $19.25 million dollars in free dental services.  23,509 individuals, reached.  140,128 completed procedures.  20,353 volunteers made this happen.

Volunteering at CDA Cares is a life changing experience.  You will truly witness the love and care in the air.  It is the positive impact and the appreciation you receive from these patients, that will stick with you throughout all your years as a clinician.

We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to volunteer at CDA Cares Anaheim.  Whether you are a dental student, faculty, or a regular community member, please sign up and see what type of impact you can make on upon the underserved population.

Follow the link below to find a listing of positions needed.
CLICK HERE

     CDA Bakersfield was definitely a volunteer moment I will never forget. Waking up at 3:30 in the morning to drive 2 hours to the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield was a challenge in itself. I have a rock start volunteer group and despite how early it was they came with a positive mindset. To be surrounded by people who are passionate about serving the community and giving back inspires me to continue to work together and help those who are underserved. This weekend of free oral health care services creates such an impact on local communities that may for whatever reason don’t have access to care. They will take anyone no questions ask and these people wait for hours just be able to receive these services. This shows how much of a need there is for oral health care and I am very thankful for the efforts of everyone who made this event a great success.

     This year CDA Bakersfield provided more than $1.25 million in care to 1,506 people. With over 1,100 volunteers and 524 dentists and health professionals