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NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(Business WIRE)–May 26, 2022–
Delta Dental of Tennessee (Delta Dental) and its charitable arm, the Smile180 Foundation, have recognized outgoing Tennessee Health and fitness Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey with its third-at any time Smile Power Award. The award, which celebrates an particular person who has manufactured a substantial good effect on the oral health of Tennesseans, was specified to Dr. Piercey in recognition of her stewardship of the state’s new 5-12 months, $94 million pilot application to broaden accessibility to dental care known as the Balanced Smiles Initiative . Click right here to perspective a video clip of the award presentation.
This press release characteristics multimedia. Check out the comprehensive launch in this article: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220526005621/en/
“Too usually individuals handle oral wellness as a independent concern, and I have to remind them that your mouth is linked to the relaxation of your overall body,” mentioned Dr. Phil Wenk, CEO of Delta Dental. “But Commissioner Piercey comprehended the relevance and urgency of addressing our dental crisis in Tennessee from the begin, and played a crucial position in the advancement and top approval of the Healthier Smiles Initiative. Generations of Tennesseans will benefit from her leadership, and I can’t imagine of a greater or more deserving recipient of this award.”
At the ask for of Governor Invoice Lee, Commissioner Piercey convened a team of dental marketplace stakeholders from throughout the state in early 2021 to establish recommendations to enhance entry to large-high quality, economical dental treatment for Tennesseans. The workgroup, which integrated dentists, dental hygienists, the state’s two dental universities, TennCare, the Department of Health and fitness, payors, safety internet clinics, and others, settled on a complete established of proposals that became the Wholesome Smiles Initiative.
The key parts of the Nutritious Smiles Initiative are an growth of dental school course sizes, new and strengthened workforce recruitment and retention attempts, and amplified protection internet funding. Two existing, confirmed security internet courses will get a sizeable enhance: the Smile On 65+ method, which offers oral well being treatment and circumstance administration solutions for more mature adults, and the prosthodontic grant application, which has to date served offer more than 2,300 Tennesseans witnessed in security-net clinics with low- or no-price dentures. 1 of all those Tennesseans is Samantha, a 33-12 months-previous one mom of a few from Paris, Tennessee who obtained lifestyle-saving treatment at Interfaith Dental Clinic.
“Everything we do at the Section of Health and fitness goes back to our mission assertion – to safeguard, boost, and enhance the health and fitness and prosperity of men and women in Tennessee,” mentioned Dr. Piercey. “The Balanced Smiles Initiative checks all of individuals boxes – even and specifically prosperity – because if you never have a wholesome smile, you may well have problems finding and holding a career, certainly just one that aligns with your abilities and capabilities.”
“A ton of folks never figure out how entry to dental care also impacts one more critical issue in Tennessee: rural healthcare facility sustainability,” Piercey added. “Without a dentist nearby, you finish up with additional folks in the crisis home with troubles that could and should really have been resolved by a dentist. And while the clinic has to – and desires to – treatment for everyone who walks into the ER, they are getting reimbursed quite very little, if everything, for all those companies.”
Ahead of her appointment by Governor Lee in January 2019, Dr. Piercey, a board-accredited little one abuse pediatrician, put in a ten years operating in health and fitness devices functions, most recently with West Tennessee Healthcare, a general public, not-for-income overall health method with a lot more than 7,000 personnel servicing 22 counties. She has continued to see sufferers in her pediatric practice in Jackson, Tennessee, the moment a 7 days all over her services as Commissioner.
Piercey is the third receiver of the Smile Electric power Award. The late Point out Consultant Charles Sargent, a winner of oral health and fitness problems which include the denture grant system, gained the inaugural Smile Electricity Award in 2018. Previous Tennessee Insurance coverage Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak was honored in 2019 for her function in support of the generation of Dental Dental’s Smile180 Basis.
The Smile180 Basis has donated much more than $21.5 million to Tennessee’s dental schools, children’s hospitals, free of charge and minimized-charge dental clinics, and other like-minded charities given that its generation in 2015.
To learn additional about Delta Dental’s philanthropic do the job across Tennessee, stop by the Smile180 Basis web site.
Delta Dental of Tennessee
Delta Dental of Tennessee is the state’s most significant independent dental gains carrier with just about 1.4 million lives covered. As section of the Delta Dental Programs Association, Delta Dental of Tennessee users have obtain to the largest dental network in the nation with additional than 154,000 vendors serving a lot more than 437,000 locations. With the straightforward mission of making certain healthful smiles, Delta Dental of Tennessee operates really hard to enable members of the communities it serves. Together with its corporate basis, Smile180, Delta Dental of Tennessee donated far more than $5.4 million in funding and in-kind providers to in excess of 130 businesses in 2021.
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Get in touch with: Ann Waller Curtis
Keyword: UNITED STATES NORTH America TENNESSEE
Market Search phrase: Ladies SENIORS Males State/Regional Insurance policy Family members Consumer HOSPITALS Qualified Providers Basis PHILANTHROPY DENTAL Public Coverage/Govt Health and fitness OTHER Education and learning Healthcare REFORM CONTINUING Schooling Education
Resource: Delta Dental of Tennessee
Copyright Small business Wire 2022.
PUB: 05/26/2022 05:38 PM/DISC: 05/26/2022 05:38 PM
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