Kids Get Free Dental Care Courtesy of Smile United
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By: Julie Montanaro
May 10, 2016
Getting an appointment and removing your child to a dentist can be like pulling teeth. Then a check can spin your grin upside down.
That might be since programs like Smile United are swelling opposite a state.
“Did we brush your teeth this morning?”
Second grader Alex Layton wasn’t shaken about this outing to a dentist.
“Open large for me…”
It was right down a gymnasium from her classroom during Fort Braden School.
“How did it go?”
“It was good,” Layton said.
Second graders and sixth graders are removing giveaway cleanings, sealants and fluoride as partial of a module called Smile United.
“I consider I’m going to start, like, brushing my teeth like each morning since it feel good – unequivocally good,” Mehki Gilyard pronounced as he finished his treatment.
So distant this year, Smile United has helped scarcely 900 students during 15 Title One schools in Leon County.
“For some of these kids this is a initial time they have ever even seen a dentist,” pronounced Kimberly Reams, a hygienist with a Leon County Health Department. “It’s unequivocally sparkling to be on a medicine end.”
“Parents don’t have to take off work either these kids have word or not, they are all covered,” pronounced a United Way’s R. Jai Gillum.
“If students are healthy, they are going to be improved students,” Leon Schools Superintendent Jackie Pons said.
Smile United is a corner bid among a United Way, a Leon County Health Department and Leon County Schools.
“This is a resplendent star statewide,” pronounced Dr. Ed Zapert, Executive Dental Director with Florida’s Department of Health. “Right now in Florida, there are 46 school-based sealant programs statewide. That series is climbing.”
The cleaning and sealing takes about 30 mins and afterwards it’s behind to class.
Dr. Zapert says investigate has shown for each dollar spent on sealant programs, it saves $1.88 in dental work later.
