Test Your Knowledge on School-Based Sealant Programs
Dental sealants are highly effective in the prevention of caries. To better serve students in underserved communities, school sealant programs have been implemented in several states to provide children with the preventive dental care they need, such as sealant placement. Read on to see how much you know about these sealant programs.
Despite evidence that delivering dental sealants in school-based settings can reduce student absenteeism, school-based sealant programs continue to be underutilized across the country due to which of the following barriers and challenges?
Implementation of a school-based sealant program is reliant on the use of portable dental equipment, a mobile van/bus with dental equipment, or fixed dental equipment installed in a school-based health center.
The cost of maintaining a tooth that develops caries can surpass $2,000, whereas the cost to place sealants on a child in a school-based sealant program is approximately how much?
What is the range of class time that a student will typically miss when he/she has access to school-based preventive dental services?
How can clinicians obtain informed consent from parents/caregivers to place sealants on participants’ teeth?
What is the preferred method to determine whether a sealant should be placed?
Allowing dental hygienists to seal teeth without requiring children to first be examined by a dentist will allow states to expand school-based sealant programs.
Share your Results:
Question #7: “Allowing dental hygienists to seal teeth without requiring children to first be examined by a dentist will allow states to expand school-based sealant programs.”
The answer to this question is not “True” in my opinion. SBSP have not expanded in many states where dental hygienists can legally place sealants without a dentist exam. State licensing agencies and Departments of Education need to work together to eliminate the barriers practitioners have to providing services like SBSP in schools. We need at least one Certified School Dental Hygienist in every school district in this country if we want to see any measurable change in dental decay rates and increases in the number of children with access to dental care.