NEW MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- The mobile dental program of St. Elizabeth Health Center added more schools and more students this summer and intends to add more in succeeding summers.
Some 65 pre-kindergarten students in the Mahoning Valley enrolled in the United Way’s Success By 6 Early Childhood Initiative will receive free dental care this summer thanks in part to a new collaboration involving the HMHP Foundation, United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, the Frank and Pearl Gelbman Foundation and the Florence and Ward Beecher foundations.
“This is huge for us because we think the Success By 6 program is going very well on the educational side,” said Bob Hannon, Mahoning Valley United Way president. “This adds the component of health and we also found one of the top unmet needs in Ohio for children is dental care.”
The dental care program is adding only four schools to the program this year as well as visiting 32 schools in underserved areas and, Hannon hopes, will double the number of kids next summer.
“This is really a pilot for us,” Hannon explains. “We have 19 schools and over 40 programs. This year we will touch four school districts … then next year we will expand.”
Before adding the Success schools and a second mobile dental unit, the Smile Station, one mobile van funded by the HMHP Foundation and other contributors, served about 1,000 grade school students every year.
“The collaboration means we can reach more children with our Smile Station van than we were able to before,” said Jim Schultis, HMHP Foundation president.
The other contributors to the mobile dental program are Hikel Trust, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the HMHP Medical Education Department, the CareSource Foundation, and the Ohio Dental Association Foundation.
Schultis said the children respond well to the dental van because they are in a familiar, comfortable setting with their friends as opposed to going to an office.
“The experience becomes a positive one that stays with them their whole lives instead of somebody who decides they are going to avoid the dentist,” he said.
Tom Yazvac, principal at Springfield Elementary School, said he is appreciative not only of being a part of the Success program, but also being one of the first four schools chosen to receive the dental services.
“All health plays into academic achievement. If students are healthy, they’re going to learn better,” Yazvac said. “Oral health is a big contributor to that and we’re happy they’re here.”
Springfield has hosted a Success program the last three years and Yazvac reports positive results.
“We have shown great success with our kids coming through this program,” he said. “For the previous two years, our kids have made great strides preparing themselves for kindergarten.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.