Northeast Delta Dental Sponsors Oral Health Initiative at Spaulding Youth Center Led by Virtudent
August 17, 2018Northeast Delta Dental, the most trusted name in dental benefits for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont is sponsoring an oral health initiative at Spaulding Youth Center led by Virtudent, the leading provider of mobile dental clinics and tele-dentistry services. The goal of the initiative is to ensure high-quality oral health care reaches an important undeserved audience, specifically, young people with autism, neurological impairments, behavioral difficulties, emotional disabilities, and learning or developmental disabilities, many of whom wouldn’t be able to receive appropriate high-quality preventive dental care in a setting that works well for the patient.
To seamlessly fit into patients’ lives at Spaulding Youth Center, Virtudent brings a full dental clinic and tele-dentistry offering onsite. A highly-trained dental hygienist operating under the supervision of a dentist conducts the basic preventive dental visit using innovative portable kits the size of a suitcase. Standard appointments deliver an advanced cleaning and a comprehensive oral exam, including a full oral health risk assessment to determine the patient’s risk of oral cancer, gum disease, and cavities as well as digital dental x-rays and intraoral photographs, which are reviewed remotely by a team of highly-qualified dentists.
After reviewing a patient’s case, the dentist may determine that additional treatment is necessary and will submit a referral. An appropriate member of the patient’s care team will then work with the patient to help find a trusted local dentist. All dental records are securely transferrable to the patient’s selected provider to ensure proper continuation of care.
“We believe that significant change can be achieved when all components of the environment work together (e.g., school, home, community) to create consistency for our students. Our Virtudent partnership with support from Northeast Delta Dental is perfectly aligned with our beliefs as the high quality on-site dental clinical model allows for consistency for the children.” said Susan Ryan, President and CEO of Spaulding Youth Center.
“Disparity in oral health care is alarming. We understand patients have a variety of different needs in terms of dental care and want that care to be delivered to them at no additional cost for the patient or provider. Not only is the model we’ve helped create for Spaulding Youth Center convenient for patients, it also recaptures patients who otherwise may not receive appropriate and timely high quality preventive care,” commented Tom Raffio, Northeast Delta Dental’s President & CEO.
“As the first commercial tele-dentistry practice in the United States, Virtudent is committed to using technology to make the traditional dental visit vastly more accessible, convenient, and patient-centric. Our mission is to improve and innovate on the oral healthcare delivery system so that high quality dental care is not a luxury, but a standard,” said Dr. Hitesh Tolani, D.M.D., Virtudent’s Founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to have support from Northeast Delta Dental to partner with mission driven organizations like Northeast Delta Dental and Spaulding Youth Center to eliminate the logistical impediments that can often prevent children from getting world-class oral health, which is also a key part of their overall health and wellness.”
About Northeast Delta Dental
Northeast Delta Dental administers dental benefits for more than 875,000 people in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, offering dental insurance programs for companies of all sizes, and individuals and families with no access to employer-sponsored dental benefits. The Northeast Delta Dental Foundation awards grants to non-profit organizations that offer programs and services to improve oral health and access to dental care. Learn more at nedelta.com.
About Spaulding Youth Center
Spaulding Youth Center is a leading provider of services for children and youth with neurological, emotional, behavioral, learning and/or developmental challenges, including Autism Spectrum Disorder. Services include academic, behavioral health, residential, foster care, health and wellness and family support. Our mission is supporting exceptional children and families toward a successful future. Spaulding Youth Center is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For information about Spaulding Youth Center, visit www.spauldingyouthcenter.org.
About Virtudent
Virtudent is changing the face of dental healthcare by leveraging tele-health technologies and a new scalable delivery model to bring high-quality dental care to patients who are otherwise foregoing their routine dental visits. By coupling state-of-the-art pop-up dental clinics with tele-health technologies, Virtudent brings the dental visit right on-site. Our tele-dentistry care delivery platform not only leverages the best dentists in the country, but also separates the diagnosing provider from the treatment provider in order to ensure our patients receive non-biased treatment plans that are 100% formulated to promote prevention, wellness and health. Virtudent aims to make a traditionally headache-inducing dental experience vastly more convenient, transparent and most importantly – all about the patient! To learn more about Virtudent visit, https://virtudent.com/.
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