Mobile dental care coming to MUSD, onsite care for students

The teeth of some Maricopa children are literally falling out.

Maricopa Unified School District’s nursing director, Marilyn Wyant, recently related that the district’s nursing offices receive five to six visits a day from students complaining about pain associated with their teeth.

“They have cavities, abscesses and other dental problems that cause them to miss time from school,” Wyant said.

She added that the number of students complaining about dental problems and missing time because of dental issues has been increasing dramatically the past several years.

However, help may soon be on the way.

The MUSD governing board recently gave Wyant permission to go ahead with the implementation of a mobile dental care clinic for MUSD students.

The program through Reach Out Healthcare works by placing dentists at schools so that parents do not have to take time away from work to get a child to the dentist and students do not miss school because of dental problems.

“Many parents in Maricopa can’t afford dental care or can’t take the time away from work to get their child to the dentist,” Wyant said. “This program resolves both of those issues.”

Through the program parents are given the opportunity to sign their children up to see a dentist. Once 25 percent of the school’s population signs up, the dentist starts scheduling visits in a school classroom.

“They can do preventative and restorative work on the students’ teeth in the classroom,” Wyant said.

The dentist then bill the parents’ insurance or set up a payment plan for parents without insurance but, best of all, students don’t miss any school and parents don’t have to take time off work.

“This is a win-win program,” Wyant said. It isn’t only the students and parents who stand to benefit from the implementation of this dental program, so does the district.

Schools’ performance scores often include attendance factors, and, by keeping children in school, the district can boost performance statistics. The biggest plus factor is that the program costs the district nothing.

“They (Reach Out Healthcare) provide all of the forms and cover all of the cost,” Wyant said. “We (the district) pay them nothing, and they pay us nothing.”

File photo