Grey Bruce Public Health is celebrating the successes of its school dental screening program.
Senior Public Health Manager Dr. Chimere Okoronkwo shared a report with the Board of Health during their meeting on August 23rd.
The Oral Health team was able to screen 5,874 students during the 2023/24 school year, which is approximately 86% of students who were eligible.
“Through the screening, we were able to find students who were eligible for the emergency and essentials services screening,” Okoronkwo says. “We are able to plan for the upcoming school year to look for ways to increase the proportion of students we’re able to screen in the schools; to increase the proportion from 86% to a higher percentage of students.”
Of the students screened, 619 (8.9%) were identified as needing urgent care and offered Healthy Smiles Ontario (HSO) through the Emergency and Essential Services Stream (EESS).
The purpose of the dental screening program was to help prevent the risk of tooth decay among school-aged children at public, private, and Amish/Mennonite schools in Grey-Bruce.
He adds that despite successes, no program is without some challenges.
“We do have staff that constantly work on addressing barriers, trying to address any concerns,” he says. “These are things we’re doing on an operational level.”
The report also says that there is s a need to continue the school-based dental screening as the results continue to demonstrate that almost 9 out of every 100 students is in need of enrolment into the EESS of the Healthy Smiles Ontario program.
The Oral Health Assessment and Surveillance Program is funded through the Ontario Ministry of Health under the mandatory programs.