SIKESTON -- The SEMO Health Network will receive over $300,000 from the Missouri Foundation for Health to expand its school-based dental program.
The Missouri Foundation for Health recently announced grant awards totaling $1.8 million to six nonprofit organizations as part of its new funding opportunity called Smiles Across Greater MO. The grants will provide dental sealants for an estimated 10,420 underserved children in Missouri.
The SEMO Health Network will receive $331,541.
"What we're planning to do is an outreach program," said Cheryl White, CEO of the SEMO Health Network. "Our goal is to serve approximately 2,000 children by providing dental sealants for children in the second and sixth grades."
Dental sealant is a plastic resin that a dentist bonds into the grooves of the chewing surface of a tooth, White explained.
"It's a preventative measure for tooth decay," she said. "According to studies, second grade seems to be the best grade to target in order to seal the most erupted, non-carious first molars. Second molar eruption occurs more frequently in the sixth grade."
Letters were sent from the Network to schools in Scott, New Madrid, Mississippi, Stoddard, Dunklin and Pemiscot counties.
"It's a four-year program," White said. The Network will provide services to as many schools as possible during this limited time but on a "first come, first served basis" due to the overwhelming response, she said.
There will also be a follow-up program "to make sure the sealants are retained," White said.
"Evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of this project will be assessed both internally and in conjunction with the Missouri Foundation for Health," she said, adding that the project will strive to meet the Healthy People 2010 goals for promoting oral health.
The program will also provide the SEMO Heath Network with the opportunity to teach good oral health habits, White said, as prevention education combined with the application of sealants has the potential to decrease the number of children affected by untreated tooth decay.
Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease of children ages 5-17 in the United States. It occurs more frequently and with greater severity among low-income, minority, uninsured and underinsured children.
Untreated tooth decay in children can cause severe pain, decreased school performance and absenteeism, impaired speech development and costly restorative treatments later in life, according to the MFH.
"It even affects their self esteem and the potential for lifelong health problems," White said.
Smiles Across Greater MO is one of MFH's four priority area grant funding opportunities for 2006.
Established in 2000 as the result of the 1994 conversion of the not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri into a for-profit company, RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc., MFH is the state's largest non-governmental entity providing funding for community health activities.
Dedicated to serving the uninsured and underserved in 84 Missouri counties and the city of St. Louis, this is the fourth year MFH has awarded grants, disbursing more than $167 million to date.
To learn more about the dental sealant program for any school in the six-
county area, call White at 1-866-640-SEMO (7366).