The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Oral Health Program remained steadfast despite the uncertainties and challenges that COVID-19 brought to our Department’s workforce and program. On March 15, 2020, to slow the spread of the disease, we went from reporting to the office on most days to teleworking, mostly. The whole team leaped on to the virtual platform and hosted face-to face meetings, community engagement activities, a symposium, and a summit. This pandemic proved more than ever what promoting oral health meant for us, to connect with the communities anywhere and anytime. And thus, OHP successfully launched, “Love Your Baby’s Teeth” campaign across social media, billboard, radio, and TV platforms.
During the pandemic, as County disaster service workers, we continued with our daily work assignments and projects, and committed ourselves to serve on the incident command system (ICS) and assisted with vaccine distribution at the County’s vaccination Points Of Dispensing (PODs) sites. Additionally, the team reached out to dental offices and clinics to follow-up on all dental health care worker COVID-19 positive cases and investigated possible COVID-19 outbreaks. We also worked with the local dental societies to inform dentists of vaccination efforts for dental healthcare professionals. In our monograph submission, we have highlighted some of our important roles and accomplishments in images from the past year.
__________
Erika Gist
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Oral Health Program