On January 9, 2023 the Tarjan Center Distinguished Lecture Series presented: Special Care Dentistry for Individuals with Disabilities: Changes in Education, Policy, & Care Delivery.
Dr. Kelly Vtizthum, DDS, MPH, described the existing challenges in obtaining dental care for people with special health care needs, how changes in dental education and training can improve access to special care dentistry and identified various policy facilitators and barriers to improved care delivery and financing for people with special health care needs.
Dr. Vtizthum’s slideshow and recordings of the lecture in English and Spanish are posted below.
Check out more of the Tarjan Center’s Distinguished Lecture Series here.
Dr. Kelly Vizthum is an exceptional dentist, dental public health advocate and expert. Kelly graduated from UCLA School of Dentistry and then completed her residency program at Special Patient Care under Dr. Sung. Kelly is now serving in an exciting new role in our dental program at SPC as a policy and program analyst.
Kelly is advocating for our patients with IDD on the state and local levels and has also secured funding with the Harbor Regional Center to expand our dental services to adult day programs. Currently, Kelly is working on a QI initiative in our clinic and hoping to establish a patient advisory committee with caregivers and patient self advocates to improve dental care at UCLA. Kelly has also submitted grants to secure funding to create desensitization videos for our special health care needs populations to use in our Special Patient Care clinics.
