Overview
Our History
An affiliate of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Children's Dental Care Foundation was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1955 to provide support for underserved children with dental care needs and special medical conditions. The Foundation was one of the nation's first centers providing dental care for handicapped children and postgraduate training in pediatric dentistry.
The Foundation has partnered with the Division of Pediatric Dentistry at Cincinnati Children's to expand the scope of our services. After more than 45 years, Children's Dental Care Foundation remains committed to underserved children who have a need for dental care.
Who We Are Today
A group of community volunteers, raising money and providing in-kind donations for the mission of our organization. The Foundation's staff includes a volunteer executive director, a development professional and a part-time administrative assistant.
Our Key Messages
Children's Dental Care Foundation is a recognized leader in advocating optimal oral health for children in our community. The Foundation identifies, builds and allocates resources (financial and other) to improve oral health; trains graduate dentists to provide specialized dental care for children and supports research that will improve the oral health of all children.
- Poor oral health has been identified as a silent epidemic in our community, with underserved children most at risk due, in part, to lack of access to dental care.
- There is a need for specialized training in pediatric dentistry to serve those children in need.
- CDCF is a mission-critical organization that strives to close the gap in dental funding, access and training for Cincinnati's children.
Call to Action
CDCF needs more funding to help more kids in need and provide additional training.
Our Mission
Founded in 1955, Children's Dental Care Foundation provides financial and health care resources for the fast-growing population of underprivileged children in Greater Cincinnati with serious dental care needs and special oral health conditions. We are the only privately funded program of its kind in the community that raises and allocates funds for dental care for children who are not on Medicaid and without private insurance.
Our Patients
Each year, Children's Dental Care Foundation provides funding for over 30 children who live throughout Greater Cincinnati and need significant dental care, yet otherwise could not afford it.
Our Services
Working through the Division of Pediatric Dentistry at Cincinnati Children's, we provide the necessary financial assistance for a wide variety of children's dental treatment, including care under sedation and general anesthesia, endodontic, periodontic and prosthodontic services for well children and those with medical, mental & physical challenges. In addition, CDCF funds research and training in support of the pediatric dental residents at Cincinnati Children's and dental professionals who are serving the children with the most serious oral health needs in our community.
Our Community's Need
According to an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati is experiencing an oral health care crisis, especially with our children. An estimated 43 percent of the city's 8-year-olds have significant tooth decay, yet only 40 percent of the population has dental insurance to affordably treat and prevent the problems associated with poor oral health care. Northern Kentucky is experiencing similar issues. If our community's children follow national trends, then:
- 25 percent of them have not seen a dentist before entering kindergarten
- They are five times more likely to suffer from tooth decay than the number two most common chronic childhood disease, asthma
- They are losing significant school hours each year due to dental-related illnesses
Children who have poor oral health care are more likely to have:
- Tooth decay, abscesses and facial swelling
- Extraction of their permanent teeth in their adolescence
- Infections that spread to other parts of the body through the bloodstream negatively affected speech, nutrition, economic productivity and quality of life in their adulthood
Our Future
The dental care needs of our community's children continue to increase at a frightening rate. Paying for dental care is seldom an option for our community's working poor families who are without insurance. Children's Dental Care Foundation is a mission critical organization, closing this gap one child at a time. CDCF relies on the generosity of individuals' contributions and fundraising events to raise the money needed to pay for over 30 children's care each year. However, there are so many more we could help if additional dollars were contributed to the foundation.
