1.3 Population Health Application

My name is Lara Timler, and I am the Academic Program Coordinator for Fanshawe’s Dental Hygiene program.  I obtained my honours degree in women’s studies from Western University in 2004 and decided soon after graduation that I wanted to enter healthcare. I graduated from Fanshawe’s Dental Hygiene program in 2009. Once I was registered with the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario and could practice, I was lucky enough to work with a London dentist specializing in geriatric dentistry. I worked two afternoons a week in a small, one-operatory clinic in a retirement residence/long-term care home, providing dental hygiene care to older adult clients. Working in this environment, I quickly realized that there were many structural barriers to optimal oral health for older adults in LTC settings, everything from financial barriers experienced by seniors with fixed incomes, medical conditions including Alzheimer’s and other complex diagnoses which made the provision of dental care very challenging, to the lack of importance of oral health in our larger healthcare system.

I started teaching part-time in the Dental Hygiene program in 2012. One of my roles at Fanshawe includes facilitating dental hygiene student placements in non-traditional practice settings, and I have had the opportunity to create partnerships with many organizations across London, including London InterCommunity Health Centre, My Sister’s Place, Community Living London, St. Joseph’s Healthcare and more. Early in my career, I realized that persons with low income who experience multiple barriers to dental care have very few options to obtain quality oral healthcare services, which significantly impacts their overall health and quality of life. I connected with a like-minded group of dental professionals and community advocates in 2017 to develop a practical solution to increase access to oral healthcare for vulnerable Londoners, including those with low income and those experiencing homelessness. In 2018, the London Community Dental Alliance formed to establish London’s first not-for-profit community-based dental clinic. We named The Wright Clinic in honour of dentist and community champion Dr. Ken Wright.

Throughout my professional journey, I have developed skills in health services research and evaluation, which are integral to supporting my work as a board member of the London Community Dental Alliance (LCDA). When the LCDA initially tried to secure capital funding to build the clinic, now located on the second floor of Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre, we worked with Pillar’s Impact Consulting group to develop a business case to demonstrate the clinic’s financial viability and sustainability. This involved market research, understanding the needs of the clients we were gearing services to, and researching different models for not-for-profit dental clinics across Canada. Once the clinic was built and we started seeing clients in April of 2021, it was clear that we needed additional funding to support everyday operations at the clinic. Providing high-quality dental care is very expensive, especially when the clients you serve cannot afford to pay for services out of pocket and don’t have access to employer insurance plans. We hired an evaluation consultant to help us establish processes at the clinic to continually monitor key metrics, including productivity (how many clients we see in a typical week), how much income we bring in from billable dental services (if the client could pay a small fee, or if we billed a provincial social services program, like Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program), and the client experience. Our evaluator administers a client feedback survey annually and interviews clients directly to understand how they experience care at the clinic and how accessible oral healthcare has impacted their overall quality of life. The information she gathers, both quantitative and qualitative data, is used when I apply for grants and other forms of funding. I have written successful grant applications that have provided over half a million dollars in funding for The Wright Clinic since 2021. Our ability to fundraise successfully over the past four years depends on the data we collect and how we share it with potential funders and community members. To learn more about the clinic and the work we do, please visit our website: The Wright Clinic. To review our most recent annual report, highlighting some of our key metrics and client stories, please visit The Wright Clinic – News and Updates.