Smile Healthy - Improving Dental Access and Oral Health in Champaign County

Miles of Smiles at Rantoul Dental Fair

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

The Smile Healthy! Dental Fair drew 90 children and their parents to the Community Service Center in Rantoul in May as part of a community-wide effort to provide greater access to affordable dental care in Champaign County.

Fifty children received dental screenings and 10 have already been enrolled in the Child Dental Access Program, according to program coordinator and
dental hygienist, Lisa Bell. These children's parents would not have otherwise been able to afford to send them to a dentist.

"We have an overabundance of medical card recipients and an absolute under abundance of providers willing to take the card," Bell said. Dentists are reluctant to accept the medical card, Bell says, because the reimbursement rates are low and the time it takes to get reimbursed is great.

The problem is not unique to Champaign County. Illinois received an F grade for access to Medicaid dental providers and a C grade for pediatric dentist availability, according to Oral Health America's 2003 Oral Health Report Card. Oral Health America is a non-profit public benefit corporation based in Chicago.

Since its inception one year ago in May, the Child Dental Access program has secured 28 participating dentists, enrolled 660 children and provided
one-on-one oral health education to thousands of kids and their families in Champaign county, according to Bell.

In addition to getting a dental screening, kids at the Smile Healthy! Dental Fair posed for pictures with Arthur the Aardvark, won electric toothbrushes while playing health food bingo and donned rubber gloves and a mask to learn how to apply sealants to a model of plastic teeth.

(Scroll down this page for photos from the event)