By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
GALENA, Kan. — An innovative project to bring dental services to schoolchildren has been recognized by a statewide group promoting oral health.
Jason Wesco, chief operations officer of Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, recently received an Excellence in Oral Health Award from Oral Health Kansas. The award recognized him as Outstanding Community Leader.
Receiving an Excellence in Oral Health Award for Outstanding Organization was the Galena School District, for the project the district is doing in cooperation with Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas.
Staff members with Community Health Center on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays set up Bulldog Dental Clinic in a building on the school campus.
A dentist and hygienists screen children, but also do fillings, provide restorative services and do dental X-rays and other services.
Galena Superintendent Brian Smith said the project started last year. He said it’s convenient for parents who sometimes can’t take time off from work for dental appointments for their children.
“It’s difficult for kids to learn if they’re sitting in class with a toothache,” Smith said.
He said many studies have proven that oral health benefits a person’s overall health in a number of ways.
Smith and others gave credit to school nurse Amy Price for being the primary organizer of the project.
During a session at the clinic last week, several schoolchildren took turns in the dentist’s chair.
“Are you brushing them in the morning after you eat breakfast so you don’t have gorilla breath when you come to school?” a hygienist asked a child she was treating. The child said he was, and that he was also brushing at night.
Making a mark
Gail Kennedy, dental outreach coordinator for Community Health Center, said Galena was the pilot project. Another school-based dental clinic is starting in Arma, and Riverton will start a clinic in January.
“We just feel like we’ve made such a mark here,” Kennedy said.
She called Price, the school nurse, “a great advocate for her children.”
Pat Lancaster is a dentist on staff with Community Health Center. He said the school-based clinic was a no-brainer after he heard the idea. He said he began to see results in improved oral health immediately.
“You get to go home every day and feel like you’ve made a difference,” he said.
Wesco said apart from the dental clinic at the Galena school campus, Community Health Center has four dental clinics for adults and children in Pittsburg, Columbus and Iola, which have 25,000 visits a year. Community Health Center has offered dental services since 2006 and now has five full-time dentists and seven dental hygienists.
He said the Community Health Center also provides basic dental screenings for 20,000 pupils in area schools. He said the goal of the screening of pupils is to identify potential problems and direct them to care.
“We’re really aggressive about going where people in need are,” Wesco said. “We really go after the people who without us wouldn’t have access otherwise.”
Wesco said he nominated the Galena School District for its award for the project.
“Nobody does as much for their kids as Galena schools,” he said.
Important contributions
“This year’s award winners have made particularly important contributions to oral health in our state by going above and beyond the call of duty,” reads the Oral Health Kansas news release announcing its 2009 Excellence in Oral Health Awards.
The Galena (Kan.) School District and Jason Wesco, chief operations officer of Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, were among this year’s winners.
