T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Dr. Lauren Schau shows one of the rooms she visits patients in at Primary Health Care. She brings with her a new form of dentistry.

A new form of dentistry is available at Primary Health Care — hospital dentistry.

Hospital dentistry combines medicine and dentistry for the oral care of people with special needs – ranging from small children with severe dental issues to autism and beyond.

Dr. Lauren Schau brought the practice to Primary Health Care when she and her family — husband, Dustin, daughters, Annabelle, 2 and Amelia, 5 months — moved to Marshalltown in November. Since she started working in January, her days at the facility on Linn Street have been jam packed as her time slots are filled quickly.

“We do fillings, extractions, crowns and I see patients ages 0 to 18 and any special needs patients,” she said. “My philosophy is I am never going to hold a child down for treatment. I talk about sugar bugs and the bacteria left in mouths. Holes in teeth are actually where bacteria goes to the bathroom, so cavities are sugar bug poop. Kids don’t want that in their mouths.”

Schau said some patients and children are not cooperative during dental procedures and benefit from going to the hospital for sedation. However, not everyone is a candidate for a hospital visit.

“If there is a 2-year-old, 3-year-old who has cavities in three or more teeth, or have lots of baby teeth, they would need multiple visits,” she said. “The child or special needs patient would get put under general anesthesia and we would do all of the treatments in one day. We do the cleaning, X-rays, care all under anesthesia so as to avoid many trips.”

Some of the special needs adults Schau said she would treat are ones with cerebral palsy, autism with the inability to tolerate dental procedures, Down syndrome and developmental delays.

A partnership with UnityPoint — Marshalltown is something Schau is setting up and hopes to have it running by June. In the meantime, she does have access to their facility. She is buying all of the equipment for the procedures and making sure necessary supplies are stocked.

What makes this partnership particularly exciting for Marshalltown is a lot of practitioners do not accept state insurance, so a hospital dentist visit is not affordable. However, Primary Health Care does accept it. Schau said there are not a lot of places in Iowa that accept hospital dentistry patients on state insurance, but Marshalltown is be one of them.

“There’s a huge need for that service, so the fact that we’re willing to take all insurances to the hospital if they are eligible and qualify is going to be huge,” she said. “There’s definitely a need. I’ve only been here a couple months and there is a lot of dental decay, unfortunately. People are driving here from Newton, Tama, Cedar Rapids, to seek this treatment.”

The rate of decay might be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schau said people have not been seeking routine care, such as six-month cleanings. Plus, people tend to snack more when they are home.

Primary Health Care staff are taking pandemic precautions such as wearing masks, changing gowns between patients and taking temperatures.

Schau said she is enjoying seeing her patients and wants people to know she is there.

“I’m trying to be nice to the kids, make it a fun environment, you don’t have to drive to Des Moines to get treatment, although we are referring them to the hospital in Des Moines until we get it up and running here in Marshalltown,” she said.

Schau visits patients from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.