Working

Judy R. Overton, RDH, BS

Judith R. Overton, RDH, BS, is the dental services director at North County Children's Clinic (NCCC), a private, not-for-profit agency that provides health services to children and eligible family members across four counties in northern New York. Last year, the dental clinics provided oral health care to more than 15,000 patients, 75% of whom either were uninsured, or had Medicaid or Child Health Plus insurance coverage.

In her current role, Overton oversees the NCCC clinics, prepares budgets, supervises and trains staff, recruits both dental hygienists and dentists, and acts as a liaison between the dental clinics and other community agencies. She also has the opportunity to focus on access to oral health care, an issue that she feels very strongly about. "[Access to care] is a major problem all over, even in the metropolitan areas," Overton says. "There just aren't enough dentists now to handle the care that's needed."

Overton graduated in 1964 with an associate's degree from the Forsyth School for Dental Hygienists in Boston, Massachusetts, which at the time was affiliated with Tufts University. Upon graduation, she moved back to New York state and became a dental hygiene teacher in two public school systems to both elementary and secondary school students. In this position, she provided annual oral health screenings to students and helped seek treatment for children who needed it but were uninsured or had Medicaid. "It was great back then," Overton says. "All kids benefited from this program." However, the program was dismantled due to budget cuts, and Overton moved into private practice in 1970, where she worked with her father, who was a dentist, along with several other dentists until 1975.

In 1977, when Overton graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts with a bachelor's degree in health education and counseling, she got a job as a dental health educator at Belchertown State School, which served people with mental disabilities until its closure in 1992. She was responsible for training the professional and direct care staff in oral hygiene procedures so they would be able to help improve the residents' oral health.

In 1980, Overton decided to pursue another professional interest, and she became an insurance and marketing representative for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston. "I wanted to prove to myself that I could make a successful transition into another field," says Overton, adding that, at the time, she felt dental hygiene wasn't allowing her the professional growth that she wanted. "I really didn't want to burn out, so I left [dental hygiene] while I still had some enthusiasm for it."

Eleven years later, after attending a Forsyth class reunion and talking to some other graduates of her alma mater still in the profession, Overton decided to return to dental hygiene. "I was ready to make a change," she says.

At that time, the United States was engaged in Operation Desert Storm. Oral health care professionals were needed on military bases, and although she had never worked in such a capacity before, Overton accepted a position at Fort Drum in Watertown, New York. She spent three years there as a periodontal therapy specialist providing services to soldiers preparing for deployment. "I really liked [working] there," Overton says of her experience. "It was very interesting [and] challenging to be part of a DENTAC [dental activity] unit on an active military base preparing soldiers for deployment. Many of them had periodontal conditions, which would have placed them at risk in the undeveloped countries [where] the soldiers were [headed]."

From Fort Drum, Overton moved to her current position. NCCC not only serves as a means for unserved people to receive oral health care treatment, it also includes a primary care program with pediatricians and nurse practitioners, a mental health program, and an adolescent pregnancy program, she says. NCCC also established a school-based primary care and dental clinic in the Watertown school district in 1994. Even when school is not in session, NCCC offers services at their community clinic in case there is an emergency.

"We were the first in New York state to have a full-service dental clinic and not be affiliated with a hospital or with a dental school," Overton says. "We hope to open another one in the future in another school district in another part of the area we serve."

The benefit of the school program is that it allows NCCC to see kids whose parents wouldn't normally seek oral health treatment. "We're targeting these kids who otherwise would never get [dental] treatment," Overton says. "We're able to get them taken care of, finish their treatment plan, and put them on a recall system."

- This edition of Working was prepared by Nicholas C. Olsen