Dental School-Based Program: Screening, Sealing, and Serving Students

Hi everyone! My name is Emily Whalen (she/her), raised in Plano, Texas and moved to San Francisco from Morgantown, West Virginia. I decided to embark on this service year to learn more about where I want to be in health care, combine my passion for teaching with medicine, and the opportunity to live in a brand-new city.

I am currently serving as the SF Department of Public Health Dental School-Based Program Assistant. When I am not out in the schools within the San Francisco Unified School District you will find me at Silver Avenue Family Health Center. Through my host site we are working towards a city-wide initiative called Cavity Free SF  by promoting education and providing dental services directly to students in San Francisco. Services include fluoride varnish for Pre-K/ Transitional-K and kindergarten to every student within SFUSD along with sealants at 30 elementary schools and one middle school. The sealant schools are selected based on areas with the largest number of cavities.

Through my role, I am working towards educating students on nutrition in relation to oral health to promote healthy habits along with awareness of the services we provide. Our largest barrier in providing services is return of consent forms sent home to parents , with the help of education we hope to see an increase in consents by increasing students’ knowledge of why our service is important and the help of teachers being more involved. 

Additionally, when providing services at the school, students and nurses are provided with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss. Numerous schools we serve have high immigrant populations, due to economic instability and many basic needs not being met,  many students are without these essential hygiene items. By providing services in school, we can send students home with resources for dentists that are economically and geographically  accessible whether the student has an emergency or to access routine care. The school nurses and staff are a great help in ensuring students with emergency cases receive treatment. I have been able to assist my host site greatly in upkeep of data and administrative work while the dental hygienists are in the field providing dental sealants.

Serving at my host site has solidified the ideas that knowledge is power and to meet people where they are at. Without knowledge at the schools of our services, school staff  are not able to effectively distribute consent forms to parents. Without that, we cannot provide services to students. While I had the privilege of dental care growing up, I have learned so much since joining the Dental Services team, which made me reflect on the effects of health education accessibility. When providing education to students they are so curious to learn more, and are highly receptive to the information being shared, information they seemingly had not heard before. The ability to meet the students where they are and without requirements for parents to miss work allows for thousands of students to receive care that they otherwise might not have access to. I hope to provide the future communities I serve with the education they need to lead healthier lives, inside and outside of the clinic. I want to be a part of task forces and initiatives that not only promote change, but are leading in the change towards a Cavity Free SF .