Showing posts with label Mobile Dental Vans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobile Dental Vans. Show all posts

Friday, March 23, 2012

Mom: Son's Teeth Extracted At School Without Consent - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego

Yes, I believe this is the exact same company I put up the open warning letter about just yesterday. The school is trying to get out of it’s responsibility, saying it’s because there are budget cuts and no school nurse!  WHAT!  The school nurse was practicing dentistry too?!!  Lord help us all! Schools need to stay out of the medical field and keep to the three R’s.

See the video at the website

SAN DIEGO -- A local mother is outraged after her 9-year-old son came home from school with four fewer teeth.

"I was livid," said Tina Richardson, mother of 9-year-old Alexander Henry. "I jumped out of my car. I ran back to the school. They were all, 'What's wrong? What's wrong?' I was shaking."

Alexander, a student at Freese Elementary School in Lomita, currently takes part in the Big Smiles Program, an organization that is contracted by the San Diego Unified School District to provide dental care at no cost to hundreds of local children.

Richardson said she signed a form in September, which she believed authorized Big Smiles to examine her son's mouth. Two months later, she received a separate "Exatraction Authorization Form" that indicated Alexander had several teeth with cavities. Richardson said she never signed or returned the form.

"I still have the form here in my hand," she said. "I did not return it to the Big Smiles Corporation. I did not give them permission to pull my son's teeth."

Four of Alexander's teeth -- three on the bottom left, one on the top left -- were pulled at the school by a dentist because two were allegedly loose and the others had cavities in them. The teeth were removed in an empty classroom, instead of in a sterile room or at the nurse's office.

"I hope this isn't going on all over the district somewhere, where they're just going into classrooms and extracting teeth out of children's heads," Richardson said.

A representative for Big Smiles told 10News the original form Richardson signed in September gave Big Smiles permission to extract the teeth.

Late Thursday afternoon, Big Smiles issued the following statement to 10News:

Big Smiles provides quality dental care to children in a school setting. It is our practice to always obtain informed consent and to only provide procedures that are medically necessary. We cannot provide details of this specific case without proper consent given federal laws that protect the privacy of the patient.

Jennifer Gorman, SD Unified's Nursing & Wellness program manager, said it was her understanding Richardson had signed an authorization form. She said they would still look into what happened, even though this probably won't be the last medical problem in local schools.

"These things, other things are going to happen that are beyond our control," Gorman said.

According to Gorman, a significant problem is the lack of school nurses, many of whom have been cut from the school district because of budget cuts. Gorman said a nurse would have been able to oversee Big Smiles' procedures and completion of authorization forms.

Mom: Son's Teeth Extracted At School Without Consent - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I don’t know, but I’ve been told, ReachOut America is as low as they go.

I’m hearing ReachOut Healthcare America mobile dentistry, and their Big Smiles program has a “service center” type place with hoards of telemarketers in cubicles, burning up the phone lines with a list of potential victims to contact that is as long as your arm. 

Telemarketers? Yes,telemarketers. This is where the “ReachOut” part comes into play. Each telemarketer has a list of the names of children, parents, your child’s school, and parent or guardian contact information.

For example, let’s say you are home, the phone rings, you answer and it’s a nice lady telling you the mobile dental clinic your school has approved, which is staffed with a highly qualified dentist and two assistants will be at your school on such and such date. Sounds just like picture-day doesn’t it?

ReachoutAmericaThe telemarketers have their expertly crafted scripts ready, which makes this phone call really a “high pressure” sales call. You’re probably going to be quoted statistics and such about the poor status of children’s dental health here in America, your state or even your town.

The telemarketer tell you they just your verbal permission - probably recorded- or so they might tell you. ReachOut can have their highly qualified and well trained dentist do just a little look-see, a screening so to speak, or maybe its been a while since your child’s last cleaning, they could do that for you too. They may tell you they will send home a report detailing Susie’s dental health.

They might ask, if their highly trained staff does find a problem, with Susie, do you what them to fix it, right then and there, since it is a full service mobile clinic. It will save you all kinds of time and we know as parents, time is a valuable commodity, right? Plus, how can you neglect your child by withholding dental care? Free dental care?! Free, you may ask?

The telemarketer, I mean company representative, tells you there will be no cost to you, since your child is eligible for free dental services because of your states Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Sounds like if you are on the “free lunch” list you get free dental care at school too, doesn’t it? 

In fact you may feel at the end of the phone call your this is all arranged by your school system as a service to all the children, included as a normal as the school nurse. Remember the fluoride rinses back in the 1980’s?

You could be lead to believe it’s nothing more than dental hygiene instruction – remember those Bell Telephone movie reels that used to make the rounds at schools?  No, well you’re not as old as me then.

If you decide you would like to be there for the event, you’re likely to be told that since they aren’t sure exactly what time Susie will be called, you could possibly be sitting there in the school all day, and you don’t want to be doing that, right? That’s just another classic separate the child and the parent ploy.

Speaking of that “free lunch” list, is that where ReachOut Healthcare got your contact information?