Evaluation
The objectives of the WIC fluoride program include early intervention for oral health care, provide a dental home for those in need, ensure access to oral health care, identify high risk clients with dental assessments, and provide oral health education to the child's caregiver. Many of the children that are seen in the Fluoride Varnish program do not have access to routine dental care. Our priority is educating the parent on routine dental visits to prevent dental disease. The program is set out to create an awareness of the importance of oral health care.
The dental hygienists are the primary source for collecting data on the clients that are served. Each WIC site has productivity targets to ensure the maximum number of clients are served. In the DOH-Broward monthly business reviews, we evaluate many different aspects of the program. Some examples include, overall monthly goal of clients served, monthly target for each site, and what percent of those clients receive fluoride. Underperforming metrics are analyzed and improvement action plans are developed.
Evaluation of the process has resulted in program improvements. When the program began in 2017, the fluoride program was offered as an optional service to the child and/or parent. Today, the fluoride program is incorporated into the WIC visit if the parent has a child with them to ensure every child can be seen by the dental hygienist. This provides the opportunity to educate the parent or legal guardian on healthy habits, proper brushing and flossing, and offer guidance the parent and child may need, even if they do not want to do the fluoride service.
Along with this, we have created a database for the hygienists to know when that client was last seen and what services were done at that last visit. This allows the hygienist to evaluate the proper needs for the client for that visit. In addition, each dental hygienist attends WIC monthly meetings to provide the WIC staff with data on their monthly number of children seen and the daily average of children seen per day. This time also allows for any questions or sharing of best practices from the WIC staff to be discussed by the dental hygienist. Another modification implemented in the fluoride varnish program is giving the dental hygienists the opportunity to work on a Saturday that WIC is open since many of the sites are very busy during this time.
By implementing these changes, the fluoride varnish program strives to increase the number of children seen by a dental hygienist. This creates an awareness for the significance of oral health care along with providing a dental home for the families without one. The program strives to provide access to care to these families. As the fluoride varnish program continues to grow, modifications will happen in order for the program to be successful.
Fiscal Year 2017-2018:
Total Clients seen: 19,288
Total Client visits: 23,017
Total services: 68,603
Fiscal Year 2018-2019:
Total Clients seen: 42,676
Total Client visits: 62,139
Total services: 175,824
Fiscal Year 2019-12/23/2019:
Total Clients seen: 22,759
Total Client visits: 25,091
Total services: 70,802
Number of Children with urgent dental needs:
4/1/2019-6/30/2019: 188 Clients
7/01/2019-12/23/2019: 148 Clients