IU Dental School’s Statewide Preventive Dentistry Program Receives $75,000 Boost from Delta Dental
For the second consecutive year, the Delta Dental Foundation has awarded $75,000 to Indiana University School of Dentistry to assist in the preventive dental care of Hoosier children at greatest risk of developing dental decay and other problems that place a youngster's oral health in jeopardy.
The grant was awarded to Seal Indiana, a statewide mobile dental sealant program created by the dental school to identify, and provide preventive care to, impoverished children whose families are unable to pay for dental care in their communities. The funds will be used to further expand the school's outreach efforts in the state, covering the total cost of dental examinations, protective dental sealants, and fluoride treatments for additional children enrolled in Indiana's Title 1 (lowest income) schools.
The foundation is the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental, one of the country's major providers of dental health service plans.
"We are very grateful to the Delta Dental Foundation for enabling Seal Indiana to provide preventive dental services to children from low-income families at no cost to their parents," said Dr. Karen M. Yoder, director of the dental school's Community Dentistry program and Seal Indiana. "These children are the most vulnerable to dental problems."
Untreated decayed teeth have serious consequences beyond the obvious pain and suffering they inflict on children, said Yoder. "Painful teeth affect one's ability to concentrate, and to achieve in school. Dental disease affects a child's quality of life."
The dental school's Seal Indiana program, a collaborative venture with the Indiana State Department of Health, was launched in 2003 with a two-pronged primary goal of working with the community at large to help reduce dental disease in vulnerable populations while also providing invaluable service-learning opportunities for the school's students.
IU dental students in their fourth (and final) year of study complete a three-day rotation with Seal Indiana under the mentorship of faculty who travel with the students throughout the state, and dental hygiene students volunteer their services at treatment sites and special community events. "In pre-rotation assignments, we familiarize the students with the specific communities they will be serving and get them thinking about issues related to disparities in access to care," Yoder said. "They also learn about how health policies are developed, and the role they can play in that important process."
In its first five years, Seal Indiana students and faculty examined more than 16,000 children at more than 700 sites, including Title 1 schools, community health centers, Head Start programs, homeless shelters, and programs for families of migrant farm workers.
The Delta Dental Foundation grant will go far in helping Seal Indiana care for the estimated 45 percent of children at the Title 1 schools who are not enrolled in Medicaid and whose parents cannot afford fees even when they are presented on a sliding scale, said Yoder. Participants will be identified by school nurses and community health center staff, and Seal Indiana will work with treatment site personnel to increase awareness of the program among eligible families.
This is the fourth grant that the Delta Dental Foundation has awarded to the IU School of Dentistry in the past two years, for a total of $160,000. In addition to its support of Seal Indiana, the foundation contributed $10,000 toward the school's services for children suffering from extensive dental problems who were treated during the "Give Kids a Smile" community events in 2007 and 2008.
Located on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, the IU School of Dentistry is one of the oldest dental schools in the country and the only one in the state. During the past academic year, about 690 students were enrolled in a variety of programs leading to degrees or certificates in dentistry, allied dental programs, hospital residencies, and advanced specialty areas of dentistry.
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