{"id":124249,"date":"2023-10-25T21:26:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T01:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=124249"},"modified":"2023-10-25T21:28:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T01:28:48","slug":"mobile-van-made-his-dental-care-easy-and-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=124249","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Van Made His Dental Care Easy \u2013 and Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0<\/strong>THINK<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the latest health and insurance issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent high school grad\u2019s story of convenient dental care underscores the importance of mobile-outreach programs that provide critical dental care to thousands of underinsured and uninsured in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n

Qahron Strickland knew he had a couple cavities.<\/p>\n

It was this past spring, and Strickland, then a senior at Bethlehem\u2019s Liberty High School, also knew there was a convenient way to fill those cavities: One of three dental vans offered through the Star Community Health Center at St. Luke\u2019s University Health System would soon be rolling onto Liberty High\u2019s tennis courts.<\/p>\n

The vans, funded in part by Capital Blue Cross, offer area students and community members \u2013 many of whom are uninsured or underinsured \u2013 accessible, professional care that can be critical to their oral and overall health.<\/p>\n

For Strickland, who didn\u2019t have a family dentist, the van was an ideal solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just gave me a great chance to get the cavities filled,\u201d said Strickland, 18. \u201cIt was right at the school, so I didn\u2019t have to go all the way to the dentist. It was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Strickland had a leg up in learning about the service\u2019s availability: His dad, Lawrence Strickland, drives St. Luke\u2019s Allentown van to various schools, helping others receive everything from basic dental checkups to fillings, sealants, even restorations.<\/p>\n

Beyond Dental Health<\/strong><\/p>\n

Qahron Strickland is just one of thousands across Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley helped over the past year by Capital Blue Cross donations to dental outreach programs.<\/p>\n

October is National Dental Hygiene month, and research shows good dental health goes hand in hand with good overall health. The National Institutes of Health and a large body of research link poor oral health to higher risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s costly for America\u2019s businesses and economy, too. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), untreated dental disease carries an annual U.S. price tag exceeding $45 billion. The CDC also reports that U.S. students lose 34 million hours a year to emergency dental care.<\/p>\n

Capital Blue Cross takes aim at the issue by supporting multiple mobile dental programs that make it easier for some harder-to-reach populations to get the oral care they need. In addition to the Star Community Health vans, those programs include Lehigh Valley Health Network\u2019s Miles of Smiles and Mission of Mercy, which serves Harrisburg and Gettysburg.<\/p>\n

The programs drew nearly 4,400 visits from June 2022 through June 2023, and the dental professionals staffing the vans applied more than 5,800 sealants and performed at least 1,300 dental restorations.<\/p>\n

Cavities Filled, He\u2019s Moving Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strickland has graduated from Liberty High, and in June 2024 will head to Northampton County Community College to study sports management.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean he won\u2019t visit his alma mater again when the Star Community van rolls back to tennis courts. He plans a return visit for his dental checkup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only a 5-minute walk from my house,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cThe people working in the van are nice. They\u2019re very focused on their work, too. They\u2019re respectful, very experienced. I\u2019d recommend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can find more useful articles at <\/strong>https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nJERRY REIMENSCHNEIDER
\nSenior Public Relations Specialist | Brand & Market Strategy
\nhttps:\/\/www.capbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the … Continue reading Mobile Van Made His Dental Care Easy \u2013 and Possible<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482,5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2","category-think"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Capital-Blue-Dental-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/124250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}