St. Paul elementaries to offer dental care to low-income families

Carlos Gonzalez, Star Tribune

Dr. Geeta Mantri, left, and dental assistant Mewael Gebreziabher filled a tooth for 7-year-old Sabriyah Murigi in the clinic at John A. Johnson Elementary School in St. Paul on Wednesday. The city’s Invest St. Paul initiative has teamed up with Smiles Across Minnesota to offer the low-cost care.

All 44 elementary schools in the St. Paul district plan to offer preventive dental care to low-income families within two years.

By EMILY JOHNS , star Tribune

Last update: October 30, 2008 - 8:09 AM

A low-cost dental program available at five elementary schools in the St. Paul district will soon be offered at all of the district's 44 elementary program sites.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and St. Paul schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen announced Wednesday at John A. Johnson Elementary that the Smiles Across Minnesota initiative, which offers preventive dental care and other services in school buildings during the school day, will be in all the district's elementary schools within two years.

"We can't teach kids if they aren't in school," said Carstarphen, citing undiagnosed dental problems as a reason kids stay home. "... We don't want their little hearts and heads and bodies hurting."

The city of St. Paul's Invest St. Paul initiative, a $25 million program to improve four struggling neighborhoods, has teamed up with Smiles Across Minnesota to offer the care. Children's Dental Services, a nonprofit that staffs the clinics with a dentist or dental hygienist, is providing the actual care.

Children's Dental Services has providing dental care in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area since 1919. School services have fluctuated with district finances over the decades, but three years ago the nonprofit made a renewed push into the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts, with the help of Oral Health America, a nationwide oral health advocacy group.

Under the Smiles Across Minnesota initiative, last year, services reached more than 3,100 students at four different sites in St. Paul. With the help of various local foundations, Children's Dental Services hopes to reach up to 7,000 kids annually once the services have been expanded to all the schools. Children's Dental Services estimates the initiative will cost $200,000 to $300,000 annually, which is paid for with fees from the services, as well as private foundation grants and support.

While the clinics are geared toward under-insured and uninsured children in the school district, no one will be turned away, according to Sarah Wovcha, executive director of Children's Dental Services. More than 70 percent of students in the St. Paul district come from low-income families, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.

Children's Dental Services provides dental care for children whose families cannot pay for dental care, and for children with insurance. They accept most insurance, but also provide assistance in applying for public insurance programs and provide care on a sliding fee or free basis.

At the clinic at John A. Johnson Elementary on Wednesday, while 7-year-old Sabriyah Murigi waited to have a filling put in, her mother, Antoinette Florez, explained that her five children had waited for more than a year for dental care before she found the clinic through the East Side Family Center.

She had been unemployed in June, when she finally brought her kids to the clinic for the first time, so she appreciated that it was free for her, too.

"It's good for the community," she said. "I think it will improve preventative care. I probably wouldn't have gotten [my kids] into the dentist as fast as I did without the clinic here."

Emily Johns • 651-298-1541

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