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WATSONVILLE – Dientes Community Dental is taking a multi-pronged approach in its mission to provide dental services to low income and undeserved communities in Santa Cruz County and it’s not as simple as brushing and flossing.
In addition to its clinical services, which served 11,242 patients last fiscal year according to its website, Dientes has now invested in the educational sphere, announcing earlier this week that it had established the county’s first dental residency program, aimed at providing training to postdoctoral dentists in public health settings.
“Not only do we get to mentor and train young professionals, but we also get to teach them about the importance of public health, about serving the community and just growing a passion for helping those people who don’t have a lot of options,” Dientes Executive Vice President of Operations Dr. Sepi Taghvaei told the Sentinel. “That’s not something you’re going to learn in private practice, that’s not something you’re necessarily going to learn in dental school.”
The residency program, launched in partnership with NYU Langone Hospitals, accepted two residents for its inaugural year, which began in July and lasts until June 30, 2022. According to a Dientes release, the residents have seen 350 patients in their first 60 days.
“It’s definitely different from dental school. It’s challenging and we’re seeing a lot more patients,” said Dr. Sharon Osakue, one of the program residents. “But in general it’s a really fun experience … it’s a great opportunity to help people who need it.”
Taghvaei told the Sentinel that about 80,000 low-income individuals in Santa Cruz County rely on Denti-Cal or Medi-Cal for their dental insurance. However, she says, most private dental practices in the county do not accept this insurance and roughly 30,000 of these low-income individuals actually end up accessing dental care.
In addition to providing new dentists the hands-on experience that dental school sometimes lacks, Taghvaei said she sees the residency program as a necessary staffing investment for an industry that has been experiencing shortages in recent years.
“We have to grow because there’s the need in our community,” she said. “The limiting factory in our growth is always going to be staffing. This residency program is one of the many initiatives that we have in place to grow our staff from within, train them and hire them so that we can continue to work to serve our community.”
According to Dientes Chief Business Development Officer Sheree Storm, the dental provider currently employs 15 dentists, seven hygienists and five registered dental assistants with extended functions.
This effort by Dientes to grow its personnel has also been accompanied by developments in the brick-and-mortar arena.
Dientes and Santa Cruz Community Health announced earlier this year they had met their fundraising goal for a new 3.7-acre health and housing complex in Live Oak that includes 11 dental chairs expected to service around 6,000 low-income residents a year.
The two health care organizations also partnered with MidPen Housing to include affordable housing units in the complex, at 1500 Capitola Road, with capacity for up to 157 people, according to Dientes.
“The need is just so big in our community,” Storm said. “This is a big step forward in addressing that need.”
Storm added that the Live Oak clinic is expected to open its door sometime before the end of the year.
In addition to its forthcoming Live Oak facility, Dientes is already running a 15-chair clinic near Dominican Hospital, a five-chair clinic in Watsonville and two separate facilities in Santa Cruz. One of the Santa Cruz locations includes an outreach program capable of visiting 28 locations a year and providing mobile dental services at schools, nursing homes and homeless facilities.
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