Newsline National Group Aims to Bolster School Based Sealant Programs

Evidence-based research demonstrates the efficacy of sealants in preventing dental caries. Protection provided by sealant placement is especially important for high-risk children and youth, who may not have access to professional oral health care services. School-based sealant programs are crucial to providing this key preventive modality to underserved children. A longtime advocate for such programs, the Children’s Dental Health Project has now convened a national Sealant Work Group to provide recommendations for the effective design and operation of sealant programs.

The newly formed group will be chaired by Matt Crespin, MPH, RDH—a nationally recognized expert on school-based sealant programs and associate director of the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin— and will include 13 members who will draft recommendations for implementing school-based sealant programs. “School sealant programs help to improve children’s oral health outcomes and reduce inequities in the prevalence of dental disease,” says Crespin. “By offering school-based sealant program managers and state oral health leaders fresh recommendations, we hope to expand the impact of this prevention strategy.” The Sealant Work Group is expected to release its first set of recommendations in fall 2016.

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. November 2015;13(11):24.