Children's Dental Health Association of San Diego

How We Help Children

Our Mission
Children's Dental Health Association (CDHA) was founded in 1952 to address the community's growing need among working poor families for access to quality dentistry. The organization is rich in history and proud of its decades of achievement in San Diego County. The organization's mission describes its efforts: "To improve the health and well-being of underserved children by providing quality, affordable and accessible dental services and education."

To fulfill this mission, the Children's Dental Health Association established the Children's Dental Health Center in downtown San Diego in 1952. The mortgage on the twice-renovated 2,000-square-foot facility was paid off in 1974. It is modern and child-friendly, and is equipped to provide all necessary dental treatments to children of underserved families. The range of available programs and services is broad, and dentists provide these programs and services to thousands of children each year, in the context of promoting health and building self-esteem. CDHC provides services each year, which are valued at over $1.4 million dollars.

In 1996 CDHA launched it's very successful School-Based Dental Access Program. This program has saved hundreds of teeth from root canals or extraction, prevented thousands of cavities (by placing sealants on over 22,000 teeth at school sites), paid for care for several thousand children, and helped thousands of children find a dental home. Our program design has empowered parents to obtain dental care and understand prevention of dental decay. We have educated parents about the etiology or dental disease, dental sealants, and community resources. We have formed a network of dental savvy school nurses who are advocates for our program and for dental health. These nurses are now empowered to offer solutions for children with unmet dental needs.

The need to improve the oral health of children in urban areas of California is urgent. At CDHC we serve only disadvantaged, low income, children who have limited access to dental care. In May 2000, the surgeon general released a report stating, "There are striking disparities in dental disease by income. Poor children suffer twice as much dental caries as their more affluent peers." One out of four children in America is born into poverty, and children living below the poverty line have more severe, untreated decay. Dental decay is the most common chronic disease of childhood--5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more than hay fever.