To help combat tooth decay among Indiana children, IUPUI and the Indiana State Department of Health funded a new custom-built mobile dental clinic. Aboard Seal Indiana, the dental school team travels statewide to apply sealants on the teeth of children of low-income families. Teams of faculty, staff and students provide vital health services for Indiana’s children in need aboard Seal Indiana. The mobile clinic is a partnership of the IU School of Dentistry, based at IUPUI, and the Indiana State Department of Health.

You might say asthma, chicken pox or the common cold, but according to the U.S. Surgeon General, the answer is tooth decay. In fact, children miss more than 50 million hours of school each year due to dental problems, according to the surgeon general’s office.

The findings underscore work by an IU School of Dentistry (IUSD) team that has taken to the streets of Indiana. Since March, the team has examined the teeth of more than 1,000 Indiana children in a new mobile clinic.

To help combat tooth decay among Indiana children, IUPUI and the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) funded a new custom-built mobile dental clinic. Aboard Seal Indiana, the dental school team travels statewide to apply sealants on the teeth of children of low-income families.

Sealants are thin plastic coatings placed on teeth by dental professionals and are an effective way to help prevent tooth decay.

“Forty percent of the children seen so far have untreated dental decay,” said Karen Yoder, program director for Seal Indiana. “We are identifying Indiana children who are not receiving dental care and are providing preventive dental services, including sealants. We also are helping families find a local dentist who can provide continuity of care to these youngsters.”

Indiana falls far short of the Healthy People 2010 National Health Objective of having sealants on the teeth of 50 percent of all children. By focusing on children affiliated with Title I schools and community health centers, Yoder hopes to change that and increase the number of Indiana children with sealants.

Seal Indiana also helps Head Start programs meet federal performance standards by providing examinations and referrals for enrolled children.

“Tooth decay is the number-one preventable childhood disease, but in order for some children to receive preventive services, the services must be taken to them,” Yoder said.

Seal Indiana will operate about 200 days a year, and Yoder expects the staff will examine 3,000 children this year.

According to Joni Albright, assistant commissioner for the ISDH, the program will go to the areas of the state most in need. Some counties in Southern Indiana—such as Jasper and Switzerland counties—represent areas where there is a shortage of dentists. Seal Indiana can help.

The mobile clinic includes two stationary dental chairs, four portable dental chairs and portable equipment for setting up additional treatment sites within a school or other community facility.

The staff includes a full-time dentist, dental assistant and mobile unit coordinator. Domenick Zero, chair of the dental school’s Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, directs the project with Yoder, director of the school’s Division of Community Dentistry.

Dental school students and a faculty dentist will participate in day-to-day mobile operations for Seal Indiana. Dental students each will serve a three-day rotation, while dental hygiene students from the dental school and other IU campuses will work as volunteers.

IUPUI and the ISDH have provided more than $500,000 in grants to fund construction of the mobile clinic and launch Seal Indiana. After one year, program directors expect the mobile clinic to be self-sustaining from reimbursements it will receive through Medicaid and Hoosier Healthwise insurance (an insurance program for low-income children).

Mobile program staff members also will encourage enrollment in these plans by providing qualification information on site. A sliding fee schedule is available for low-income families who don’t have Medicaid. Directors emphasize no child will be turned away because of inability to pay.

The mobile clinic also will be used to conduct research through IUSD’s Oral Health Research Institute.

http://sealindiana.org