New dental office aims to bridge gap for young patients

Local children's access to vital health care got a little more convenient this week with the opening of a new dental office in southwest Bakersfield.

Children's Choice Dental Care, a chain with 26 locations around the state, celebrated its new location Tuesday at 7950 White Lane, Units C and D — less than three miles west of its only other dental office in the city.

The new location is expected to make dental care more available to children of poor families who, according to a recent state report, too often risk tooth decay by failing to get to their dentist for preventative care as often as they should.

"We're not just opening a dental office," Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Jeff Jacobson said in a news release. "We're opening doors to opportunity, quality care and the confidence that comes with a healthy smile. We believe in meeting families where they are and providing the services they deserve."

Tuesday's grand opening was the occasion of a ribbon-cutting by Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, who said the new location stands as an investment in local children's future and a commitment to local families.

"When we provide children with quality health care," she said, "we're laying the foundation for a stronger, healthier community."

A report released two months ago by California's independent Little Hoover Commission concluded more needs to be done to make sure children enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid, not only are given greater access to dental care, but that they actually use it.

The report was an update to a 2016 report that blamed dysfunction for the fact that half the state's children covered by Medi-Cal fail to receive needed dental care.

Despite efforts since then to streamline the program, including making it easier for dentists to sign up as Medi-Cal providers and get authorization for treatment, the commission found that only 47.6% of the program's beneficiaries up to 20 years in age use their dental beneficiaries on at least a yearly basis.

That makes California one of the worst states in the country in providing care and treatment of pediatric dental disease.

"Children with commercial insurance have been far more likely to receive dental services than children insured through Medi-Cal, with private-insurance utilization rates approximately 23 percentage points higher in 2021," the report stated. "Further, the state's utilization rate for Medicaid insured children ranked 21st nationally in that year."

According to Choice Healthcare Services, the Sacramento-based dental management service organization at work in the new office, more than three-quarters of its local patients depend on Medi-Cal. It noted, too, that the repercussions of failing to prevent tooth decay include missed school days and lower academic performance.

Children's Choice Dental Care opened its first Bakersfield office in March 2021 at 2350 White Lane. Since then, business has gone so well that it became necessary to open a second office not far away, stated Chief Marketing Officer Marnie Maton of Choice Healthcare Services, touted as the largest provider of pediatric dental care in the Southwest United States.

"Our Bakersfield East location became so popular that we decided to open our second location nearby to continue serving families in the same neighborhoods with even more pediatric dentistry options," Maton said by email. She added that, at the new Bakersfield West location, the company has more Saturday hours available and expanded orthodontic services.