“Cavities are 100 percent preventable,” said Dr. Jane Gillett when she visited the Alberton School last Thursday. She was at the school as part of the Sealants for Smiles program which started in 2012 by the Montana Dental Association. 

“Tooth decay is a chronic problem. It’s eight times more prevalent than asthma, and 11 times more than hay fever. And it’s preventable,” said Gillett, who is a Bozeman dentist and researcher, as well as Sealants For Smiles program director and vice chair of the ADA Council on Access, Prevention and Interprofessional Relations. 

Oftentimes, children don’t know what’s wrong, Gillett explained, and parents don’t realize their children are in pain until they have a swollen face or the kids have a bad toothache. 

“It can affect their ability to concentrate in school, they can’t eat right, it can be a very big problem,” she said, “and 60 to 70 percent of Montana’s third-graders have cavities.”

Sealants for Smiles is a school-based sealant program which operates with the help of volunteer dentists, hygienists, assistants and community members. Services are provided, at no cost to families, which includes dental sealants and fluoride varnish treatments to children in schools. 

Gillett saw 130 children in Superior this year, with the help of Dr. Ordelheid from Plains. Seventy children were seen in St. Regis. In Alberton, 79 children were signed up and Dr. Saunders from Frenchtown Dental, along with her staff, helped out for the day.  

So far this year, 12,000 kids have been seen by Gillett. Along with the help of 468 volunteers, and 100 dentists, in over 80 Montana communities.

In a 2014 interview, Dr. Christopher Hirt, Montana Dental Association president and a general dentist in Billings, said that Montana has a very spread-out population and there are a lot of rural areas where children are in need of dental care. 

“And we also have many dentists who are willing to volunteer. What we wanted to do with this program was connect them,” said Hirt.

“Placing sealants is only one aspect of the comprehensive prevention program”, said Gillette. “We also assist qualified uninsured families in applying for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Filling out the paperwork to do this can be an onerous task for a family. The application is very complex, but we help them gather the information they need in order to apply and then spend time with the families helping them fill it out.”

Sealants for Smiles also coordinates follow-up care for children with urgent treatment needs, Dr. Gillette said. “If they have a dentist, we coordinate with them. However, since our program uses local volunteer dentists, children with urgent needs who don’t have a dentist are most commonly seen by the attending volunteer dentist that very day in their office, or at the latest the next day.”