Dental visits to at-risk schools

GREEN BAY -
Down the hall from the classrooms and cafeteria at Fort Howard elementary school students are visiting the dentist. The staff of Oral Health Partnership, a non profit dental group, has set up a makeshift dental office, complete with X-rays, cleanings and a dentist's drill.

"I feel it's really addressing needs not met before and I feel I'm making a difference," said dentist Lisa Piontek.

A majority of the students here are considered at need. Many of them don't have access to dental care or insurance. And Their oral health is poor.

"Our statistics still remain that 9 out of 10 kids we see have decay," said Carrie Stempski, Oral Health Partnership's executive director.

But since 2007 this free service to students has found improvements, while better education on brushing, and diet have helped too.

Fort Howard is just one of nine schools in the Green Bay school district the Oral Health Partnership focuses on. In a year's time the dental needs of 3,000 students will be addressed.

"We are just hitting the tip of the iceberg," added Stempski.

With parental permission, 8-year-old Alberto Aguilera has had teeth removed and cavities filled. But he's in better oral health now.

"We don't have statistics but we know kids are missing a lot of school and not just because of the flu, but also oral health as well," said Fort Howard principal Curt Julian.

A typical dentist would lose money treating these patients, because Medicaid doesn't cover all the costs.

"If we didn't have extra funding with donations and grants we wouldn't be able to survive either," said Stempski.

But thanks to community support, Oral Health Partnership now has a permanent dentist's chair at Fort Howard with office hours twice a week. In addition to its mobile school clinics, Oral Health Partnership has a permanent clinic at the Howe Resource Center near downtown Green Bay where appointments can be made.