Bringing dental care to kids in schools is helping take care of teeth neglected in the pandemic
The portable clinic is part of a cavity prevention program developed by NYU College of Dentistry and being rolled out in Concord and two other New Hampshire districts. CariedAway New Hampshire hopes to expand to Maine and Vermont — and eventually nationwide — as part of a growing effort to improve pediatric oral health, especially in children from lower-income families.
There isn’t a good national estimate of dental programs in schools but many larger school districts have them. Boston University’s program operates in 20 schools and 30 preschools in Boston and eight other cities in Massachusetts and covers 3,000 children from 6 months to 21 years. In New York City, 81,000 students across 820 schools — a little over half of all public schools — were treated last school year.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital has seen 1,700 children in central Ohio since 2021 with its roving school-based dental clinics, while Minnesota nonprofit Ready, Set, Smile is in 44 schools in the Twin Cities, serving 2,225 children.
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Nearly half of all U.S. children don’t receive regular dental care, according to a 2022 report from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, which is a federal agency.
That can lead to cavities quickly: More than half of children ages 6 to 8 had a cavity in at least one baby tooth and more than half adolescents ages 12 to 19 have a cavity in at least one of the permanent teeth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Too many children fail to see a dentist before they enter school — forcing them to go to the hospital to get treatment for a mouthful of cavities, Harvard School of Dental Medicine’s Catherine Hayes said.
“If their parents aren’t getting any kind of oral health education in the physician’s office, these kids develop extensive decay,” she said, noting it can take a month or more to fix. She added: "... It’s completely preventable. We know how to prevent it.”
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The challenge for many programs, especially mobile and school-based clinics, is sustainability, said Richard Niederman, a professor of epidemiology and health promotion at NYU Dentistry and founder of CariedAway. That’s because school-based programs like Neiderman’s lean heavily on donations because they often serve low-income populations who are either uninsured or on Medicaid.