A $500,000 grant from the
Appalachian Regional Commission and Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is
making it possible to develop a statewide oral health plan and to give school
children dental care that they would not get otherwise.
Marshall University’s Center for Rural Health is administering the program.
So far it’s given out grants
of up to $25,000 to nine communities so they can examine children’s teeth,
administer fluoride treatment and put sealants on. There are plans to give out
seven or eight more grants later this school year.
One of the grants went to Berkeley County.
Students at Tuscarora Elementary School in Martinsburg come into the nurse’s office three at
a time. For some of these children this
will be their first visit to the dentist.
Dr. Lisa Dunn is conducting
the exams and this year she plans to examine children on free and reduced lunch
at every school in Berkeley County whose parents give permission.
Dunn refers those who need
more care to the new Healthy Smiles Clinic, a sliding scale dental practice
that opens next month in Martinsburg.
Dunn says she’s seeing a lot
of children who have one or two cavities and others with much more serious
problems.
“I saw a young man the other
day, I’m going to guess he was 10 or 11 because it was an intermediate school
and every primary or baby tooth that he had left in his mouth but one needed to
be extracted,” Dunn said. “So it was very serious.”
Dunn says that particular
patient needed immediate treatment so she referred him to a local oral
surgeon’s office.
A primary goal of the
program is to get sealants on as many children as possible.
“And that prevents them from
decay and can prevent significant oral health problems,” Dr. Richard Crespo, Marshall University family and community health professor, said.
Crespo says some places have
used the grant as seed money to expand the program.
“In Wood County they decided that they wanted to target all of the
schools,” Crespo said. “That’s probably the most ambitious, it’s a lot of work
to go to all of the schools in Wood County and do these screenings.”
Crespo says another goal is
to create a statewide oral health plan.
He anticipates having a preliminary plan ready by January when the next
legislative session begins.
If West Virginia develops a plan and hires a full time state oral
health director, it will be eligible for grants from the Centers for Disease
Control totaling about $250, 000 a year for five years.
The money would be used to
create surveillance and educational programs and to build infrastructure to
improve overall oral health.
“We want to put the mouth
back with the body,” Crespo said.
“Right now there’s been this
sense that in terms of oral health the mouth has not been part of the body and
so people will think of taking their child to see the pediatrician on a regular
basis but not go see the dentist,” Crespo said. “It’s important that oral
health be included.”
Crespo says studies show
good oral health is crucial to cognitive development in children and poor oral
health can lead to infections that cause death.
In order to develop a
statewide oral health plan Marshall
has been conducting a series of public meetings across the state.
The final meeting takes
place at the WVU Health Sciences Center Eastern Division in Martinsburg from 1-3 p.m.