LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Marta Fuller's little corner of the world is Lake County. For the better part of four decades now she has brightened that corner with her commitment to children's oral health.
When not doing that, she is joining in making the environment more melodious as principle (second) violin in the Lake County Symphony Orchestra.
Her husband, Wally, also has a presence in the county's art scene as general manager of the Soper-Reese Community Theater in Lakeport.
Like the kids who have grown up with good dental habits first introduced to them by Fuller, children's oral hygiene has grown up around this dedicated and socially attuned organizer, educator and grant writer, who is a registered nurse.
In December, she was honored by the Lakeport Unified School Board for her efforts.
“I have been working in the dental field in one form or another for about 35 years. Public Health Services has been my contract home for that entire time,” Fuller said during a session for early primary students at Burns Valley School in Clearlake. “They have been very supportive of all of our efforts to improve oral health in Lake County.”
She added, “Lake County Office of Education's Healthy Start program is my right arm. Their school site staff organizes and sets up screenings, education, varnishes and sealants. Lakeside Health Center has been a partner since they opened their doors and started providing dental services.”
Said Dr. Doug Lewis, who has been a partner of that system for a decade and has a clinic in Ukiah: “Lake has a very advanced system ... one of the better ones I've seen. We have the cooperation of Public Health, they are working with the schools and (Fuller) is doing dental health education in the schools.
The long-term objective, said Fuller, is to bring the best dental disease prevention services and information to all Lake County residents.
The effort, which has focused on preventative medicine, has been moderately successful; Lake County's oral hygiene program is regarded as one of the better ones in the state.
“The goal is to prevent decay before it starts,” Fuller said. “This year we are working with a federal HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) grant. We guarantee that we will apply sealants to students in at least eight schools, plus we will be doing migrant education summer school.”
There has been a gradual evolution in Lake County's dental health, said Lewis, “but the real challenge is getting it out to the public ... It's really more of a social issue and an economic concern, but it also gets down to demographics. People are spread out.
“The county's low economic profile also poses a higher risk for the kids. A lot of parents are doing the best they can, but some of them need more help. That's why were doing what we're trying to do,” Lewis said.
On this particular day Lewis has set up a dental chair in the Healthy Start office space at Burns Valley, administering dental sealants to a small number of students while their classmates crowded around the chair and watched.
Lewis is regarded as a champion for education and preventive dental services providing sealants at no cost to school children for over a decade.
“He is in partnership with us and has taken our Lake County model and duplicated the program in Mendocino County and has created a successful school prevention program there, too,” said Fuller.
Fuller was one of the coordinators who managed to stay afloat in 2009 when the state of California stepped out of what had been created as the first statewide Children's Dental Disease Prevention Program and operated for 30 years by defunding it.
“There are folks still working to bring back funding for this (still legislated) amazing program,” she said.
These include the Lake County Oral Health Access Council (OHAC), local dentists, dental clinic directors and other oral health stakeholders in the county.
“We are, as a group, members of the statewide OHAC in Sacramento, which has been another major supporter,” Fuller said. “First 5 Lake has been a huge supporter and partner as well. They have funded an oral health project since the commission first started funding projects and have become oral health champions for kids 0-5 in a big way.
“That covers the major partners, except to say that all the schools deserve kudos for letting us come in and teach oral health education and provide screenings and preventive agents and services for so many years,” she said.
OK, second violin in the Lake County Symphony Orchestra, but in bringing oral health education to the county's schools Marta Fuller is second-fiddle to no one.
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