You, personally, may never interact with our state’s
oral health safety net. But if you become one of
the many North Carolinians who are uninsured or
underserved, you could find yourself in the clinic
chair of someone like Amanda Kilburn Kerns, BCBSNC
Foundation Schweitzer Fellow and student at UNC’s
School of Dentistry. And you’d be awfully lucky.
“I’ve become really passionate about
improving access to care in our community.
In fact, my co-Fellow Jeff Jackson and I
have both been so inspired by the help
we’ve been able to provide through our
fellowship that we’ve applied for a grant to
continue doing this through 2014.”
It’s not always easy, though, helping
those with few other options. Amanda
recalls one particularly challenging day:
“I was working at Missions of Mercy,
and I had the opportunity to provide
treatment for a new patient. I noticed she
was dressed in a very baggy T-shirt, and I
had to speak with her through a translator,
as she spoke only Spanish. When she
came over to my clinic chair and I began
reviewing her medical history, I noticed
she’d checked the box ‘diabetes.’ Through
the translator, we were able to establish
that it was actually gestational diabetes—
this woman was pregnant and already in
her third trimester. It stopped me cold. I’d
never treated a pregnant patient.”
There’s a critical link between an
expectant mother’s oral health and the
pre- and postnatal health of her child.
But many dentists and oral care providers
working today share Amanda’s hesitation
about treating pregnant women—despite
current recommendations from the
American Dental Association.
As a result of this experience, Amanda
and Jeff developed a Fellowship project
to change the way medical students are
educated about the importance of oral
health during pregnancy and to ensure that
dental students have practice with treating
pregnant women. Encounters such as the
one Amanda had at Missions of Mercy are
just one way the word is getting out.
“I went and discussed the situation with
my faculty on-site. Together, we reviewed
the National Guidelines, making sure it
would be safe to provide her with routine
dental treatment. It was, and I did.”
Fortunately, the work Amanda
and Jeff are doing along with other
Foundation grantees is dispelling oral
health myths around our state and
building bridges between the local
dental and medical communities.
