Faith Groups Have Goal of Dental Care For All

Nearly 200 people from five faith communities in the Reston-Herndon area will meet with Sen. Janet Howell (D-Reston) and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova to build support for a concrete strategy to address the lack of access to dental care in western Fairfax County.

The public is also invited to attend the meeting on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2:45 p.m. at 

The meeting is organized through VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement). VOICE is a multifaith, non-partisan, citizens' organization that is raising funds to hire a full-time dentist for an existing dental clinic in Sterling that serves the low income and uninsured. 

VOICE has received a $100,000 challenge grant that, when matched, would cover the cost of hiring a dentist to serve low-income residents of western Fairfax County for a two-year period.

"We are asking support from State Senator Janet Howell and Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova and they will attend the Jan. 29 meeting,"  VOICE spokesman Joan Kasprowicz said in a statement.  "We ask people to attend this meeting to demonstrate support for this important project to our elected officials."

Since its founding in 2008, VOICE has worked to expand dental care for adults in Northern Virginia, most notably by winning public funding to add a full time dentist at the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic in Baileys Crossroads, and organizing public support to protect the dental safety net in Richmond in 2010.

VOICE congregation leaders have developed a concrete proposal in Western Fairfax: $200,000 in private contributions to add a full-time dentist serving Fairfax clients at the new Northern Virginia Dental Clinic in Sterling. Having already raised two-thirds of the money itself, the group has engaged Howell and  Bulova to get additional public commitments from hospitals like INOVA andReston/HCA to ensure two years of funding.

Last spring, VOICE leaders from the Reston-Herndon area began to hear stories of church and community members living with acute pain, using unlicensed dentists, missing work and going without treatment, many developing more serious health conditions, some requiring hospitalization as a result of not being able to afford dental care. 

These experiences have been validated by the most recent Community Themes and Strengths Assessment of the Fairfax Community, which found that respondents with annual income under $50,000 identified dental health as one of the most important health-related issues. A study commissioned by the Northern Virginia Health Foundation concluded that dental care is out of reach for many in Northern Virginia.