With the help of a $120,000 grant from Metrocrest Hospital Authority, Texas A&M University College of Dentistry in Dallas offers an oral health program in Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District for the first time. The grant also supports the college’s ongoing dental hygiene education and cavity prevention information distribution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  

Parents of nearly 100 students at Sheffield Elementary School in Dallas consented for third graders and some second graders to be screened for dental problems by Texas A&M’s dental students during this school year. Through Empowering Smiles Oral Health Initiative Program, dental students and dental hygiene students will make four visits to Sheffield before June, assessing students’ dental needs and hosting sealant clinics. Two visits were in the first semester of the school year.

Similar screenings and fluoride varnish clinics are scheduled this school year at McWhorter Elementary School and McKamy Elementary School, both in Dallas, and McLaughlin Strickland Elementary School and Blair Elementary School, both in Farmers Branch. About 400 students at McLaughlin Strickland, ranging from kindergartners to fifth graders, are scheduled for initial screenings and fluoride applications on Feb. 12 in what the dental team calls a Blast Day.

Dr. Amal Noureldin, a tenured professor and director of the predoctoral program in the college’s public health sciences department, said the MHA grant allows the college to offer C-FBISD parents and students similar screenings and care to what the dental students and dental hygiene students provide at schools in Dallas Independent School District, Garland Independent School District, Richardson Independent School District and Irving Independent School District.

While the MHA grant is only for one year, Noureldin said feedback is positive so far and the grant could be renewed.

“We are collecting data on dental needs including cavities, decay and gum problems …,” she said. “From our sealant program, we observed a high prevalence of decay.”

Basic preventive care, including screening, fluoride treatment and sealants, costs about $150 to $300 per child in the competitive marketplace, said Dr. Luz “Lucy” Mendoza, program portfolio manager in the college’s public health sciences department. The college’s program aims to help decrease both children’s school absences and parents’ time off work for dentist appointments. The program is offered at no charge.

“We are trying to close the loop,” Noureldin said.