CVHN Dental Clinic now serving children who quality for Medicaid

In its seventh year of serving the community, Children's Volunteer Health Network is continuing to expand its mission of enhancing the lives of uninsured and underinsured school-aged children in Okaloosa & Walton Counties. As of September 2012, CVHN had facilitated more than 9,900 medical, dental, vision and mental health care procedures since inception in 2005 and has now taken another step toward serving more children in the community. The CVHN Dental Clinic in Santa Rosa Beach, which opened in April 2012, will now be seeing children who qualify for Medicaid. 
 

"CVHN has worked diligently over the past several years to find a solution to the overwhelming dental care needs of our uninsured and underinsured children.  There are numerous children in our community who qualify for Medicaid, but are unable to gain access to dental care due to a very limited number of Medicaid providers in our area.  We are thrilled to now be able to expand our dental services to children who qualify for Medicaid,' said Zach Billingsley, CVHN's Executive Director.
 

CVHN will continue operating in its original mission of facilitating access to medical, dental, vision and mental health care for uninsured and underinsured children in Okaloosa and Walton Counties. Billingsley said, "Our hope is that a combined effort from the local health departments, CVHN's generous volunteer providers, the CVHN Mobile Dental Clinic and our new CVHN Dental Clinic will allow all of our local children to gain access to the care they need and deserve.  Our mission remains the same.  This will simply allow us to reach more children who face issues gaining access to dental care and help provide some sustainable income for our programs."

The CVHN Dental Clinic is a state of the art 3-chair dental clinic headed by Dr. Stephanie Cook. Cook is a graduate of the University of Florida's College of Dentistry and has four years of dental practice experience, primarily treating indigent children. She has taken two mission trips to Guaimaca, Honduras where she treated impoverished Hondurans in the mountain villages, orphanages and hospital of Guaimaca performing various dental and oral surgical procedures.

ABOUT CHILDREN'S VOLUNTEER HEALTH NETWORK, INC. (CVHN)
Children's Volunteer Health Network, Inc., HEALTHY HAPPY KIDS, is a faith-based 501(c)(3) organization, established in 2005 in response to Walton and Okaloosa county's large population of low income families who are unable to access high quality health services due to the unavailability (or inadequacy) of insurance. CVHN seeks to enhance the lives of uninsured and underinsured school-aged children by facilitating free, immediate access to medical, dental, vision and mental health services by utilizing a network of over 95 local physicians, dentists and healthcare providers. CVHN also operates the 'Just for Grins' Mobile Dental Clinic that visits local elementary schools and opened the CVHN Dental Clinic in 2012. CVHN has facilitated more than 9,900 medical, dental, vision and mental healthcare procedures since inception.