Our Mission, Vision and History
Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the oral health of children in Orange County through collaborations directed at prevention, education, treatment and advocacy.
Our vision is that through collaborations and partnerships, children of our community will enter school ready to learn and pain free. Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County seeks to improve the oral health of our children through a multi-faceted approach:
- Prevention education
- Early identification of caries
- Nutritional guidance
- Education of health care providers with the goal of integrating oral health into the primary care model of medicine
- Facilitating safety net and community providers to increase their capacity to see children and to see them in a culturally appropriate manner
- Providing treatment services where there are gaps in care.
- Advocate for increased access to treatment services for all children.
Our History
In 2001, The Children's Dental Center in Inglewood, California hosted Latino children from Oak View Elementary School in Huntington Beach, California for a day of education in the Tooth Fairy Cottage and very low cost dental treatment services. The “field trip” north, far from their neighborhood for these eighty or so youngsters, was prompted by school nurse Carol Kanode who kept prodding El Viento Founder and Chairman Jack Shaw into action. These kids needed dental care and there was no place to send them in Orange County. These El Viento kids participated in an outstanding program of tutoring, mentoring and sailing. However they may not succeed, as the nurse pointed out, because they had oral disease.
Mr. Shaw, Oak View Elementary School and Ms. Kanode all deserve great credit in pushing forward the issue of oral health. Since that time, several initiatives have increased the capacity in Orange County to provide low-income children with dental treatment services.
In 2003, Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County was founded as a funded program of the Children and Families Commission of Orange County after initial incubation by the Health Funders Partnership of Orange County. Jack Shaw was recruited as the Chairman of the Board and Ms. Dottie Andrews consulted and developed the design of the program and established its innovative and visionary working plan. An outstanding board of directors was developed over the next year and in June of 2003 Healthy Smiles received its independent non-profit status.
By September of 2003, Rocio Núñez-Magdaleno was recruited to start a pilot program as guests of the Health Care Agency in Santa Ana. The one chair dental operatory in the County’s dental clinic tested a program for very young children and became the first and only center in Orange County to provide nitrous oxide services for uninsured children. In December 2003, Sandra Bolton joined the team as the Executive Director.
During this time, the Commission, Healthy Smiles, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove collaborated to develop a comprehensive children’s health and dental center in Garden Grove. In early 2004, the collaboration broke ground on construction on a 14,000 square foot center dedicated to providing low-income families with a comprehensive approach to wellness.
Meanwhile, Healthy Smiles continued to develop its strategy to improve the oral health of children in Orange County through a comprehensive and collaborative approach to prevention, education and treatment services. An ongoing outreach program educates schools, parent groups and other community based organizations. One key mission of Healthy Smiles is an aggressive campaign to integrate oral health into primary care. Pediatricians, school nurses, primary care providers, child care providers all are eager to participate and include the curriculum in their daily practice.
In September 2005, the Garden Grove Children’s Health & Dental Center opened to great fanfare! The center represents a culmination of incredible collaboration between funders, providers and the community to the benefit of our low-income children. In one building Orange County children can now receive services for family counseling from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove, primary care medical services from CHOC, and primary care and specialty care dental services from Healthy Smiles. The dental services are provided at a very low cost on a sliding scale based on a family’s ability to pay.
Healthy Smiles remains dedicated to prevention. The Tooth Fairy Learning Center, a comprehensive center designed to engage children in the science, fun and magic of oral health issues, occupies over half of the square footage of Healthy Smiles’ Center. All children receiving treatment services have an opportunity to participate in lessons at the Learning Center and have fun! Additionally, the center is available for field trips.
