Sonrisas Dental Health Inc

Sonrisas Dental Health seeks to become a dental home for our patients, increasing the oral health status of our community through providing dental screening, dental care, and education to San Mateo County residents. In San Mateo County, where as many as 58,000 residents live below the federal poverty line, access to dental care is quite limited. SDH's goals center on improving access to high-quality dental care for those who struggle to find a dentist who will accept their public insurance, or who offers an affordable scale. We also serve senior citizens and patients with special needs at all ages, who may find mobility challenges to be a significant barrier to oral healthcare access.

Sonrisas Dental Health's cornerstone programs (our strategies) include:

Access to Care:
Providing dental care to low-income San Mateo County residents. Sonrisas accepts public (Medi-Cal Dental) insurance and also has an affordable care scale for uninsured patients. 70% of patient visits serve low-income individuals.

School Screening Program:
In FY19, Sonrisas screened 854 students at schools in our community that have 50% or more students eligible for free or reduced lunch. Of those 854 students, 56% had visible decay and 6% needed urgent or emergency dental care. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, SDH rapidly pivoted to tele-dentistry and virtual programming to bolster our ability to serve our community.

Hospital Program:
In partnership with hospitals in the county, our pediatric dentists care for children with extensive oral health repair and rehabilitation needs.

Special Needs:
Sonrisas is the dental home of 220 patients with special needs. Our San Mateo facility is fully accessible to accommodate patients with intellectual, sensory, or physical access needs.

Farmworkers Program:
We bring comprehensive oral health treatment to farm and nursery workers directly in the community where they live and work, through our mobile dentistry program.

Sonrisas is a fiscally healthy organization that relies on grants and philanthropy to offset the gap between public insurance reimbursement and the cost of providing care. We are poised to grow and to provide care to even more residents in our community, and we will do so with our community's support.

Sonrisas received significant grant funding from each of the hospitals in San Mateo County, along with other grant funding from philanthropic organizations both nationally and in our area. In FY21, we continue to build our funding sources form local corporate and individual donors, so that we can expand the capacity of our clinics and maintain or improve the financial status of our organization. We look forward to providing access to essential health care services to as many San Mateo County residents as possible.