Social dentistry activities can be considered the “tool” to facilitate accessibility to dental services and promote equitable, appropriate and sustainable care to protect the health of the oral cavity of population groups with health fragility and/or socio-economic vulnerability.
This mission to contain inequalities is provided for in the regional equity plans and in the systems for guaranteeing ministerial levels of assistance and, in the Frosinone Local Health Authority, has been entrusted to the Social Dentistry Operating Unit, a team belonging to the Department of Primary Care and Intermediate Care (Director Dr. Marcello Russo) and directed by Dr. Marco Agostini operating in synergy with clinical professionals such as Dr. Giuseppe Mazza.
Having assessed the needs of the population in the provincial territory, in the last three years, despite the limitations due to the pandemic, there has been a good response from users, with 1,136 users taken care of at the Casa della Salute in Ceccano and 10,642 performance outputs within the integrated clinical care path of social dentistry as of 31 October.
Dr. Agostini, from these numbers you can understand the amount of work that the UOS does every year, let’s get into it specifically: whatis social dentistry?
It is intended as various services aimed not only at providing rehabilitation services for the oral cavity (caries, dento-skeletal malocclusions, prostheses) at the Casa della Salute in Ceccano, but also proactive activities on the territory with a mobile means to facilitate accessibility and care for the most disadvantaged citizens and health prevention and education in schools, RSA, homes for the elderly to promote changes in lifestyles (correct nutrition and care of one’s mouth) and awareness of one’s state of health of the oral cavity (daily home and periodic oral hygiene by a dentist).
How do I access the services?
The requirements for outpatient access are the possession of an ISEE of less than € 13,000.00 and the Commitment of your General Practitioner or Paediatric “Social Dentistry Visit” to be recorded in the CUP Agendas. All health services are free of charge with the exception of prostheses or orthodontic appliances regulated by a regional nomenclature tariff with calibrated tickets.
On the other hand, for prevention in Schools, RSAs and Residences for the elderly, the Headteacher or the Health Director can request it via e-mail odontoiatriasociale@aslfrosinone.it. For any further clarification on the merits, you can call 0775.6262830 from Monday to Friday from 9.00 am to 12.00 pm .
Are there any new projects at the studio?
Yes, in compliance with the containment of inequalities provided for in the Regional Equity Plans and in the Guarantee Systems of the Ministerial L.E.A. (Essential Levels of Assistance), we want to implement the accessibility, reception and taking charge of vulnerable subjects with innovative ideas, such as the proactivity of a mobile vehicle that can be relocated to the territory that, through the PUA function and the Community Houses, facilitates the inclusion in the reserved and differentiated paths of citizens with more complex needs. Through the mobile relocatable vehicle, which is now used for prevention and health education, we will be able to reach the fragile and/or vulnerable population that has accessibility problems because they may live in mountain areas and therefore favor their territorial takeover by avoiding access to hospital facilities.
Ourvision in perspective is to consider “social dentistry” not only as a tool to contain inequalities in dentistry, but also as a catalyst for taking charge of fragile and/or vulnerable subjects and at the same time as a container for the dispersion of inappropriate demand for hospital services, avoiding exacerbations or complications. In fact, people with socioeconomic-cultural vulnerability well understand the simple dental need (“I have toothache“, “I need a prosthesis to chew“) but frequently fail to understand that they are carriers of more complex and articulated needs such as those present in chronic systemic diseases. Therefore, through the “social dentistry tool” it is possible to intercept a segment of the population that notoriously resorts to treatment at an advanced stage of the disease, also generating an inappropriate demand for hospital services.
This is to support an effectiveness of integrated social-health services and an improvement in the efficiency of resource costs, that is, social capital, stakeholders, actors in the production chain who work in synergy in complex organizations in order to improve the overall health of the citizen in civic respect for the common good.
