Dental checkup required to attend Illinois public school

[Kat Kanning]

http://www.times-press.com/newsmain.php?storyid=12406

Dental exams needed for students
By MELISSA GARZANELLI ? For The Times-Press

Pick up new back pack. Buy new gym shoes. Make dental appointment.

The dental appointment is new on many parents? list of back-to-school things to do.

Beginning with this school year, students entering kindergarten, second- and sixth-grades in both public and private schools must show proof of a dental examination by May 15, said Jennifer Williams, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

?The message (with this new law) is oral health is just as important as all health care,? she said. ?Studies have been done that a lack of oral health may contribute to other diseases.? By requiring dental exams for students, just as physical exams are required, it ensures that children will see a dentist at least a few times as they grow.

?These changes are primarily for people for which this might be the only time they bring their children to the dentist, because they have to, so to speak,? said Richard Ewald, an Ottawa dentist, who specializes in caring for children. ?We have some families that bring in their children when they are 2 or 3 (years old) and keep coming every six months until they?re 19. This is primarily for those who don?t go so often.?

Dr. Ed Allen, superintendent of Streator Elementary School District 44, said it?s ?good news, bad news.?

He knows there are students that do not receive adequate dental care, and ?this will identify their needs.? He also feels it could be a financial hardship on some families.

Dr. Kathryn Marx, superintendent of Lostant Grade School, said the dental exams are a good thing. ?I think it?s a good thing for a child to be healthy,? she said, as a healthy child learns better.

She does, however, have concerns about the cost involved and the time frames of the exams. Presently children need a physical for kindergarten, fifth- and ninth-grade. ?It?s not organized well,? she said.

Ewald explained that exams for kindergarten students check how primary teeth are progressing, and exams for second-grade students check and seal their permanent molars. By sixth-grade most children have lost all of their primary teeth and a dentist can determine if they need braces.

However, critics of the bill say the law lacks teeth, since the only penalty for not having a dental exam by May 15 is that students cannot receive their report cards. They would still be able to advance to the next grade.

Marx said this is not much of a penalty, as some parents don?t pick up the report card now.

While schools will try to collect as many dental exam forms as possible prior to the start of school, the exam does not have to actually take place until May 15 under the law. Notification of an appointment for a dental exam within 60 days following the May 15 deadline will also be accepted.

Marx and Allen are concerned about the cost to parents.

?I worry about the parents? ability to pay for it,? Marx said.

Some families have the Medicaid card, but it?s hard to find a dentist who will accept it, said Marx.

Allen pointed out 52 percent of the Streator district students are from low income families. Not all families have the resources for the exam and care needed following the exam.

He feels the income levels qualifying for assistance need to be revised. He said the way the assistant program is designed, by the time a family can almost afford something the assistance is taken away, so they can?t.

It?s a ?feel good? piece of legislature, said Allen.

The law attempts to ensure all students receive dental exams at key developmental phases, but low-income students may slide through the cracks, not receiving dental care as the law intended.

Waivers will be available from the Illinois Department of Public Health for students who can demonstrate that they have no access to a dentist who will work with public aid students and that paying for a dental visit would be an economic hardship, said Williams.

The cost of a dental exam is about $30 to $50.

Williams added that many county health departments offer dental clinics.

Jenny Barrie, health educator for the La Salle County Health Department, said the county is waiting to hear if it will receive grant money to fund a dental examination program for low-income families.

?We?re hopeful that we will receive it,? she said. ?We?re hopeful we will get word in the near future.?

If the grant money is received, the program could be put in place this fall. The program is only for low-income families who are not on Medicaid.

A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services said in La Salle County, there are nine dentists who work with Medicaid patients. Four of them, however, are not accepting new patients and another four accept patients only on a limited basis. The names of these dentists are available to Medicaid patients if they contact the state.

Of the patients at his practice, Ewald estimated that 70 percent to 85 percent have insurance.

?The thing we see with a single parent family ... sometimes the grandparents will take the child and pay for it if there is no insurance,? he said.

Federal funds through the No Child Left Behind legislation can be used to pay for dental exams for low-income students as well as other similar offerings, such as vision examinations.

Williams said studies have shown that students who have problems with their teeth have trouble learning. Ewald pointed out that establishing good dental habits at a young age is key to long-term health. ?Dental health is very important,? he said. ?If we can instill good brushing and flossing habits now, that is the basis for years and years into adulthood.?

[AlanM]

It's for the children.
Give me a break. Of course the sheeple will line up at the dentist office, child in tow. Sickening what people will put up with. 

[toowm]

We got out just in time! Don't forget the mental health screenings in public school and locked-up cold medicine in the aptly-named Land of Lincoln.

Despite all this, I'm still a Bears and Illini fan.

[Russell Kanning]

now they need universal healthcare