Healthcare Access

Back to Main Page

Purpose and Target Population

  • PURPOSE: Reduce dental disease among Maine children through prevention-focused education. By promoting healthy habits and early intervention, the program aims to break the cycle of tooth decay and gum disease and empower every child to grow up with a healthy, confident smile.

  • TARGET POPULATION: Public School age Children who do not have access to consistent dental care.

Best Practices

Provide high-quality preventive dental services to children who do not have an established dental home. At each appointment, reinforce the importance of good oral hygiene and nutritious food choices.

  • Identify and arrest active decay: Apply caries-arresting medicaments when decay is detected.

  • Prevent future decay: Place dental sealants as appropriate.

  • Build effective hygiene habits: Perform dental prophylaxis with hand instruments while showing students what plaque is, how it affects oral health, and how to remove it daily.

These practices help students achieve and maintain a healthy mouth.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenges: The program faces three primary barriers:

  • Reaching the children who need services most.

  • Finding dentists who can treat active dental disease or infection when it is identified.

  • Securing support from school staff who understand the importance of good oral health.

Solutions: Possible solutions could include:

  • Reach more eligible children: Partner with school nurses, social workers, family liaisons, and community organizations to identify students without regular dental care. Offer services during the school day, simplify consent forms, and provide materials in families’ preferred languages.

  • Expand referral and treatment capacity: Build a dependable referral network of local dentists, community health centers, and dental schools. Establish clear referral procedures, prioritize urgent cases, and help families navigate appointments and transportation.

  • Strengthen school support: Provide school leaders and staff with brief orientation materials explaining how oral health affects attendance, comfort, nutrition, and learning. Designate a school contact to coordinate schedules, consent forms, and follow-up.

  • Track outcomes and follow-up: Maintain a secure system for documenting screenings, preventive services, referrals, and treatment completion. Use program results to identify service gaps and demonstrate the program’s value to schools and funders.

Develop sustainable partnerships: Pursue grants, sponsorships, donated supplies, and agreements with dental providers and community organizations to support staffing, equipment, transportation, and ongoing care.

Resources and Tools

Program Forms and Family Communication

  • Parent/guardian letter and consent form: Explain available services, eligibility, fees or financial assistance, health-history requirements, and how families authorize participation.

  • Student treatment summary: Record screening results and treatment provided for parents, cleanings, fluoride varnish, sealants, silver diamine fluoride, temporary fillings, home-care instructions, and recommended follow-up.

  • Referral directory: Maintain an updated list of pediatric dentists, oral surgeons, community health centers, MaineCare providers, and practices offering sliding-fee care.

  • Urgent-care protocol: Use a standard process for notifying families, scheduling treatment, arranging transportation, and documenting completion.

Maine Guidance and School-Based Resources

  • Maine Department of Education oral-health guidance: School-health guidance and access to the School-Based Oral Health Toolkit for school nurses and program partners.

  • Maine CDC sealants and fluoride varnish resources: State information for preventive services and provider implementation.

  • Maine School Oral Health Program reports: Use current reports to inform planning, partnerships, outreach, and grant applications.

Clinical and Educational Tools

  • CDC school sealant program guidance: Evidence-based information on program design, consent, screening, sealant delivery, referrals, and follow-up.

  • Smiles for Life training: Courses and teaching materials on caries-risk assessment, fluoride varnish, oral examination, counseling, and silver diamine fluoride.

  • American Dental Association family materials: Printable brushing calendars, activity sheets, lesson plans, posters, and family education resources, including materials in English and Spanish.

  • Age-appropriate education materials: Pair short videos, posters, brushing demonstrations, nutrition activities, and take-home instructions with each school visit.

Program Management Tools

  • Service tracker: Monitor students screened, preventive services delivered, active decay identified, referrals made, and treatment completed.

  • Sealant-retention and recall log: Track tooth-level treatment, follow-up dates, and retention checks.

  • School coordination checklist: Confirm space, electricity, water access, schedules, consent collection, student flow, infection-control supplies, and the designated school contact.

  • Outcome dashboard: Summarize participation, services, referral completion, urgent cases resolved, schools served and estimated unmet need for reporting to schools and funders.

  • Privacy and records checklist: Store health information securely and limit access to authorized staff in accordance with applicable requirements.

Contact

Healthy Smiles for ME

Lewiston, Auburn and RSU 16 Schools (Poland, Minot, Mechanic Falls)