CHOP/Penn Team Receives $30,000 Grant

A grant awarded to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine (Penn Dental Medicine) will help create a new program that focuses on providing dental care to children and adults with a rare genetic disorder.

Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is a genetic disorder that causes a range of physical and cognitive challenges. Children diagnosed with CdLS need early and ongoing attention to their dental health. Since many children with CdLS have cognitive issues, dental care is often performed under sedation and requires experienced pediatric specialists to deliver proper dental care. 

The $30,000 grant, awarded by Delta Dental as one of its Access to Care grants, will help create a program within CHOP’s Center for Cornelia de Lange Syndrome and Related Diagnoses to support dental care for children and adults with CdLS and similar diagnoses. Specifically, the grant will provide support to families for dental services, obtain specialized equipment, and allow for the development of educational materials for families and clinicians.

All outpatient CHOP dental care is performed at Penn Dental Medicine within the School’s Division of Pediatric Dentistry, while patients requiring general anesthesia are treated at CHOP.

Rochelle G. Lindemeyer, DMD, the center’s consulting dentist and Associate Professor Emeritus of Pediatric Dentistry at Penn Dental Medicine and CHOP, will serve as the grant’s principal investigator. Co-investigators on the project will be Ian D. Krantz, MD, Director of the Center for Cornelia de Lange Syndrome and Related Diagnoses, and Sarah E. Raible, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor and Clinical Director of the center.