Have you visited a school-based dental sealant program in your state or community?
There may be a good story there.
Can’t find one to visit? That may be another worthwhile story.
Dental sealants are thin, plastic coatings that are professionally applied to children’s permanent back teeth to seal the narrow grooves on the chewing surfaces and keep out decay-causing bacteria and food particles. Studies show that the quick, noninvasive procedure can reduce the incidence of tooth decay by 60 percent among children and teens.
But poor and high-risk kids who could benefit the most from sealants are not always receiving them. Barely a quarter of 6-9 year olds living at or below the federal poverty level have sealants compared with more than a third of more affluent children according to one major study. The study also concluded that the prevalence of dental sealants varies by poverty status among children and race and ethnicity among adolescents.
Research shows that school-based sealant programs (SSPs) are effective in getting care to kids who might otherwise miss out on it. The nonprofit, Washington, DC-based Children’s Dental Health Project has taken a new look at issues that impact the success of these programs in states and communities nationwide. Their new study, “Dental Sealants: Proven to Prevent Tooth Decay,” was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and builds upon more than a decade’s worth of research showing the importance of the school-based model in getting sealants to children.
Drawing upon data for more than 640 school-based sealant programs across the country, the report finds a variety of approaches and funding sources as well as regional patterns in the way the programs are run. It provides case studies on well-established school sealant programs in five states- Illinois, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina – but concludes “there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to SSP success.”
Still, the vast majority of states lack what it terms “substantial and sustained” school sealant programs, the report observes. In a similar vein, last year in its “Falling Short” study the Pew Center on the States gave 20 states and the District of Columbia D and F grades when it came to getting sealants to kids. Pew concluded that most states have not been “doing enough to use a proven strategy for preventing tooth decay, unnecessarily driving up health care costs for families and taxpayers.”
The Pew study graded states according to four measures; whether programs were located in high-needs schools; whether hygienists were allowed to place the sealants without a dentist’s exam; the effectiveness of dental health data collection efforts and progress in meeting national health objectives on sealants.
Federal health officials have stressed the importance of sealants in reducing tooth decay. One of the objectives outlined in the national health agenda, Healthy People 2020, is to get dental sealants to more kids.
In an effort to further that goal, the Affordable Care Act has authorized the expansion of school-based dental sealant programs.
Yet as important as sealants are, barriers exist that keep schools from establishing more programs. One that is sometimes overlooked is the pressure that schools face in other areas such as raising test scores. In a response to the CDHP report, Bill Maas, former director of the CDC’s Division of Oral Health explores that idea.
What is your state or community doing about school-based sealant programs?
If you don’t know, maybe it’s time to find out.
Resources
Here are some additional links that might be helpful to you as you explore this question:
- The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors has developed a best-practice guide to school-based sealant programs.
- The American Dental Association provides information for consumers on sealants.
- In addition, this article from the Journal of the American Dental Association presents evidence-based clinical recommendations for use of sealants.
- The CDC has an FAQ about dental sealants and more information about school-based sealant programs.
- Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine explains sealants for kids, with illustrations.
- The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research also explains what sealants are and how they are applied.
