Living Water Clinic

Living Water Clinic serves a predominantly low-income, rural population across seven sites in California. At the site where OroMed launched, dental care runs through a clinic with two operatories and a single dentist, and demand has always outrun that capacity.

The challenge

Appointments booked out four weeks or more, and there was no system to separate patients who needed to be seen urgently from those who could wait. Patients with infections, abscesses, or acute pain were scheduled alongside routine cases. Recruiting more dental providers to a rural location was not a realistic near-term answer; candidates prefer larger cities and more stable practice environments. Living Water needed a smarter system, not more resources it could not access.

The approach

OroMed integrated preventive dental evaluations into both the medical visit workflow and the dental department. Eligible patients now receive an evaluation at the point of their primary care visit, and a panel of four to five OroMed dentists conducts the evaluations virtually, bringing dental expertise to patients without asking Living Water to recruit and retain providers in-house.

Each evaluation feeds a structured triage process. Patients leave with a slip marking their urgency level (Urgent, Immediate, or Routine) and bring it to the front desk to book. The dental team sequences care against real urgency: patients who need to be seen tomorrow get seen tomorrow, not in four weeks. The program runs mobile, rotating through whatever rooms are available, with no designated space required.

The results

Living Water launched in April 2026. In the first month the program delivered meaningful preventive dental access and, just as important, a triage system that finally matched the urgency of care to the speed of scheduling. With six more sites in the network, the opportunity ahead is significant.