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Agents of Change

Meet an Agent of Change - Dr. Richard Mungo Dr. Richard Mungo's life-long professional passion addresses oral health crisis in Orange County

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It's been almost a decade now, but Dr. Richard Mungo, pediatric dentist with a thriving practice in Huntington Beach, still remembers how it all started.  One evening at home, after a typical 12-hour day of everything from teaching children how to brush and floss, to fabricating a feeding device to help a newborn with a cleft palate, he received a telephone call from John C. (Jack) Shaw, the recently retired Vice Chairman of Deloitte & Touche, one of the country's largest accounting and consulting firms.  The two men had never met, but Mr. Shaw got right to the point: earlier that day he had been in his dentist's chair for a routine exam, and, for reasons even he could not fully explain, started to think about dental care for children in Orange County. Specifically, he wondered whether children in the County's underserved communities had access to the type of oral health care they needed.  Dr. Mungo could hardly believe his ears.  Literally out of the blue, one of the most prominent and well-connected business leaders in the State of California – perhaps in the entire nation – was interested in Dr. Mungo's life-long professional passion.  Dr. Mungo hardly knew where to begin.   They talked for a long time that evening, with Dr. Mungo describing the needs as he saw them, and Mr. Shaw pledging to do something to solve the problem.  They agreed to meet soon to continue their conversation.  After he hung up the phone, Dr. Mungo stood still for a moment, trying to fully absorb what had just happened. That was probably the last time Richard Mungo stood still.  Within days of their telephone conversation, Mr. Shaw and Dr. Mungo met and brought together business and community leaders, physicians in a range of pediatric specialties, nurses, and educators – a team that Dr. Mungo calls "truly amazing" – to focus on what needed to be done to bring high quality oral health care to the children of Orange County.  Everyone on the team was excited by the prospect of actually doing something to make a difference.  Dr. Mungo remembers the meetings as "high energy and inspiring."  But identifying problems and solutions was the easy part.  "We can all come up with good ideas, but the reality is we have to pay to make things go from the idea stage to the actually existing stage, Dr. Mungo says.  Funds from Proposition 10 seemed like a perfect solution, but the team was fully aware there was no shortage of worthy causes, and their case had to be beyond compelling.  "We all knew the need was critical, but we needed the Commission to understand it, too," Dr. Mungo recalls.  With fervor and a laser-like focus on the children they were trying to help, the team crafted a presentation that amazed even Dr. Mungo.  "The Commission recognized the correlation between chronic dental pain often times brought on by untreated cavities, and a child's ability to learn.  They listened, heard what we were saying, and realized there was a crisis that had to be addressed."  With Proposition 10 funding from the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County was founded in 2003. Dr. Mungo doesn't hesitate when it comes to giving credit.  "Without that, it would not have happened," he says, "Funds from the Commission enabled us to take our idea and turn it into a reality." A pilot program was launched at the Health Care Agency in Santa Ana, and in 2004, in partnership with Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and the Boys and Girls Club of Garden Grove, ground was broken on a 14,000 square foot comprehensive health and dental center in Garden Grove, which opened in 2005.  The modern facility shares a campus with the Boys and Girls Club of Garden Grove and houses the Healthy Smiles' Smile Center Clinic, the CHOC Garden Grove Clinic and Access to Resources for Children's Health.   With Dr. Mungo as its Medical Director, Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County is reaching thousands of children who otherwise would not have access to quality oral health care.  The need could not be greater.  It would probably surprise people to know that one out of every three children in Orange County suffers from untreated dental decay, a rate higher than the statewide average.  Dental decay is only one of many oral health issues Dr. Mungo and his colleagues treat children with cleft palates, children with cancer as a result of the effects of chemotherapy, nutritional deficiencies, soft tissue infections and diseases, and a host of other conditions impacting the oral and overall health of children in our community.   It goes even beyond that.  Dr. Mungo emphasizes the importance of treating "the whole patient" and believes it is essential for pediatric dentists to work closely with other medical pediatric specialists in such fields as neurology, cardiology, emergency room medicine, etc.  Make no mistake, though, Dr. Mungo is all about pediatric dentistry.  From the start, he knew that for the Healthy Smiles program to have a long-term impact on Orange County, it was critical for there to be more pediatric dentists in the area.  To accomplish that, he worked with CHOC, the Commission and the University of Southern California (USC) to establish a pediatric dental residency program in Orange County.  He considers that one of the most important achievements.  "We faced a severe shortage of trained pediatric dentists in Orange County.  Driving to Los Angeles was not practical for a lot our families.  We had to make it easy for them to access care.  The only way to do that was to have more doctors here."  Already the program has graduated five residents, three of whom are practicing in Orange County and still working at Healthy Smiles. More doctors like Richard Mungo is exactly what Orange County needs.  For almost a quarter of a century, he has been practicing pediatric dentistry and serving the community.  He sees a full range of children for oral health needs, from newborn babies to teenagers.  Sometimes his patients come from abroad, and have gone their whole lives without ever seeing a dentist.  Dr. Mungo treats healthy children as well as children with special health care needs or disabilities.  He does it all – surgery, restorative work (such as fillings) and preventative work.  Dr.  Mungo likes to describe his approach as having three arms: treatment, prevention and education.  This is the model used for the Healthy Smiles Program and is what truly makes a difference in the long run. More than just a practitioner, he is a pediatric advocate.  It's a role he relishes and one he believes comes with the job of being a pediatric dentist.  And although he has treated thousands of children over the years, he is as energized by it today as when he saw his first patient.  "I find working with children both a great challenge and very rewarding. When you're treating children, you are also treating their families—working with the parents along with the kids. If I can make a difference in one child's life—that moment when they are sitting in front of you and you're treating them—that's what it is all about – that's what makes me fulfilled." Asked about his most gratifying experience as a pediatric dentist, Dr. Mungo pauses for a moment, and then shares an extraordinary story:  "I remember one little girl who was in the 1st grade, doing poorly, and missing a lot of days of school. Social workers got involved, and realized the child was in terrible pain. The mother was called in for child neglect, since the child was underweight and missing school, but in reality, this child's condition had nothing to do with neglect. The little girl had multiple cavities and infections throughout her mouth.  The mother had been to three or four dentists, but because she was not able to pay, her child was not able to receive care. Then they were connected with Healthy Smiles. We operated on her for more than three hours, doing the surgery at CHOC, and brought her mouth back to good health. That was about a year ago, and we just got invited to come to her school.  I can't wait to see her smile." A graduate of Case Western Reserve School of Dentistry, Dr. Mungo completed his pediatric residency at Boston University Graduate School of Dentistry and a Fellowship at USC/Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Craniofacial Anomalies.  He also has a Master's degree in Medical Education from USC School of Medicine.  He has received numerous awards for his work, and serves on many community boards.  The father of six, he somehow balances his roles as a private practitioner, Medical Director of Healthy Smiles and faculty member at USC School of Dentistry.  Even he admits he doesn't know how he does it some days.  But talking about himself is not Dr. Mungo's favorite subject.  He'd much rather talk about the Healthy Smiles program, for which he has big plans. "First, I see more utilization of our mobile clinic. We have a mobile unit that goes out into the community, and I see that being used more in the future as we are taking our care and treatment to the children.  Second, we want to expand use of our transportation program that brings patients to Healthy Smiles and take them home. And third, we want to grow our outreach to the other clinics within Orange County. We can't see all the kids in need in Orange County at Healthy Smiles, so we need to work with other dentists to encourage them to reach out to more and younger children. "Remember - it's all about the kids," he says.

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