Julia* is 7 years old and had never been to the dentist until she was brought to one of our member clinics, Cass County Dental Clinic (CCDC) in Kansas City, Missouri, with rampant decay on 13 of her teeth.
Without dental insurance and with an income that falls just above the poverty levels needed to apply for assistance, Julia's family would have to pay for her expensive care out of pocket. To make matters worse, the time it took to apply for assistance and get denied delayed Julia's treatment for months.
Thankfully, CCDC is a nonprofit dental care provider. They offered to restore Julia's smile at a reduced rate but still needed help to cover the cost of sedation, which was necessary for such extensive treatment. As members of our Dental Resource Program, CCDC is eligible to apply for In the Gap grants to help patients like Julia and her family access the care they need to have healthy smiles.
Because of support from MGE: Management Experts, we issued an In the Gap grant to help cover the cost of treatment and remove the heavy financial burden that was impeding Julia's care.
"Without your generous support, this family would have more than $900 in anesthesia bills, which would be a huge burden to them financially and could have prevented Julia from getting the care she needed," CCDS's Director of Dental Programs, Katie Schroeder, RDH told us. "Because of you, Julia was able to have 13 of her primary teeth treated for decay while she slept peacefully through the procedure today. Thank you for allowing us to provide the best care for this little girl!"
To learn more about In the Gap grants and how to support them, visit our In the Gap program page.
*Patient's name has been changed to protect their privacy. Not all grantees have provided photos. In some cases, stock photos are used to represent a patient’s gender, age and ethnicity if known.