Staff writer
Dental hygienists from Grace Medical Health Clinic in Wichita are going to be performing dental screenings, cleanings, sealants, and fluoride treatments for Marion students Dec. 2.
The hygienists will start at Marion Elementary School and then move to Marion Middle and High School to give every age group a chance to receive dental care. The services are free of charge to the school and parents.
The clinic is a federally qualified health clinic and thus operates as a nonprofit. They use federal grant money to cover the cost of the school program that allows them to go to 50 schools covering 11 Kansas counties.
Dec. 2 will be the clinic’s second visit to Marion this school year — their first was Nov. 4 — and their third visit in 2009; they also came in February. The hygienists usually only visit a school once per school year, but the student response in Marion was so great that the hygienists had to return to fit in all prospective patients.
“We weren’t able to complete everyone who signed up,” GraceMed spokesperson Karen Wilson said. “There has just been an overwhelming response to the need.”
The number of students that received cleanings increased significantly from March to November: 40 students participated in February and 90 in November.
“In theory, students who attend school could have their teeth examined, cleaned, and receive fluoride treatment every six months,” USD 408 nurse Kristin Garman said.
Of the 90 Marion students that the three hygienists saw on Nov. 4, 72 students were without dental insurance.
“Our goal, our mission, is to identify those children that need dental treatment,” Wilson said. “People are getting laid off and they are losing their insurance.”
GraceMed screened every student in the school district, but cleanings, sealants, and fluoride treatments all require a student to present a form of parental consent to the hygienist. If the hygienists diagnose a dental problem, like a cavity or other types of prolonged decay, they will refer students to an area dentist to get those problems resolved.
Garman said that the students receiving treatments on Dec. 2 have already turned in their parental consent papers; they were the students that could not be seen by a hygienist in November.
“It’s kind of a nonthreatening way to go the dentist,” Garman said. “It’s in the school not in a dentist office and the ladies are very, very nice to the kids.”