Lyon College School of Dental Medicine hosts ‘Give Kids a Smile Day’

The Lyon College School of Dental Medicine gave free oral health screenings and fluoride treatments to kids and parents as a part of its Give Kids a Smile Day in Little Rock on Friday morning.

The event included a dance party, readings from the Tooth Fairy, face painting, a coloring station and snacks, to create a positive experience for kids going to the dentist.

“If we can start them early and get them off on the right foot, it changes their future,” said Thomas Redd, vice president of professional relations for Delta Dental of Arkansas. “It changes self-esteem. It changes overall health. It helps them get jobs. Truth is, it really does overall help, emotionally, physically. It really is bigger than just teeth.”

Delta Dental of Arkansas was the event’s primary sponsor.

Give Kids a Smile Day started in 2003 and is a national initiative aimed to provide underserved children free oral health care, according to Meagan Inclan, assistant professor of pediatric dentistry.

Each year, approximately 6,500 dentists and 30,000 dental team members volunteer at local Give Kids a Smile events, according to Inclan.

Arkansas ranks lowest in oral health in the nation and second lowest in dentist-to-population ratio, according to Burke Soffe, dean of the Lyon College School of Dental Medicine.

“This is an exciting moment for (the students) to get their feet wet, so to speak, and put on gloves and masks and start living the life of a dentist,” Soffe said.

“Sixty percent of Arkansas kids have already experienced dental decay,” he said. “Which is a prime example that we need to help break the cycle. We need to help increase oral health literacy. We need to increase access to care and make sure that parents recognize the importance of bringing their kids to the dentist twice a year for checkups.”

“We recommend, before the first tooth is erupted, bringing kids in so they can have a good experience in a dental office but also educate parents on the importance of maintaining the baby teeth and maintaining oral health which sets someone up for life,” Soffe said.

According to Inclan, there are not enough dentists to serve the number of people that live in Arkansas, especially in rural communities.

“A lot of them don’t have a dentist in the city and towns so they’re traveling quite a distance to receive care if they’re able to,” Inclan said.

There are counties with few or no dentists, according to Sharon Lanier, executive director of Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation.

Calhoun, Newton, Perry and Cleveland counties are the ones with no permanent dentists and many more counties are considered Health Professional Shortage Areas where people often have to travel far to receive care, said Lanier.

One of the students, Sarah Belle Mays, 25, comes from a small Arkansas community herself.

From Marshall, Mays has seen the affects of being medically and dentally underserved in rural Arkansas.

“It really made an impact on me on how discouraging and how unfair it is that people don’t have access to quality health care,” Mays said. “I hope to go back and serve in a rural community like what I grew up in … Focusing on providing quality and affordable health care for people who actually need it.”

Mays said that Give Kids a Smile is “a really nice way to introduce the school to the community.”

Another student, Harper Faulkenberry, 22, agrees.

“We’re here for the community and we need them to be here for us,” he said.

Faulkenberry is also from a rural community, Ozark.

There’s only one dentist in the town that is booked out six months and can’t take any new patients within that time frame, Faulkenberry said.

“I knew I wanted to have that kind of impact wherever I was at. I also knew that I wanted to have a different lifestyle than we had,” Faulkenberry said. “So I figured the best way to do that was as a dentist because it gave me the opportunity to interact with people in the community every day and provide a life for me and my family.”

CORRECTION: At an event at the Lyon College School of Dental Medicine in Little Rock offering free oral health screenings and fluoride treatment to children, Dr. Burke Soffe, dean of the college, said, “Sixty percent of Arkansas kids have already experienced dental decay.” A typo in an update of this article led to an inaccurate quote of the percentage.