Lincoln County Dental is scheduling appointments for affordable dental screenings, cleaning and the application of sealants at the Boothbay Region School Health Center (BRSHC) and is exploring the possibility of expanding to other Lincoln County schools.

Lincoln County Dental is a public health program supported by five local dental providers who volunteer their time to offer reduced fee dental services for patients at or below 200 percent of the poverty level.

For the past five years, the organization has focused on adults, but in partnership with LincolnHealth, it is exploring more ways to meet the need for lower cost dental care for children.

In screenings done at Lincoln County Head Starts and some schools, about 62 percent of children had tooth decay.

Appointments at the Boothbay Region School Health Center will be scheduled through the school based health center. Because the organization’s resources are very limited, Kathryn Young, LD, clinical director of Lincoln County Dental, said it is very important that when an appointment is made, people make every effort to keep it.

“There is no profit margin in the work we do so if a patient doesn’t come, that makes a really big dent in our ability to continue,” said Young

Young said that for the past five years, the core mission of Lincoln County Dental has been to make dental care available to people who have infections and pain because they can’t pay for regular dental visits.

Dental pain is one of the most common reasons for emergency room visits and it is also linked to reoccurring opiate and antibiotic use. One of Lincoln County Dental’s goals is to reduce the need for those emergency visits and cut down on the use of potentially addictive opiates.

Now, she said, the organization is also investigating more ways to make basic dental care available to children who are uninsured or covered through MaineCare.

In addition to dental cleanings and screenings, the use of sealants can greatly reduce the number of cavities in children.

Dental disease is the number one unmet health need in all third-grade children and she said dental providers are seeing an increased rate of decay in children and young adults 12 to 20 years old.

More children are eating and drinking foods with high sugar content, and popular new energy drinks are also high in sugar and very caustic to teeth.

Appointments at the Boothbay Region School Health Center can be scheduled through Kacy Pound. If you have a child who attends one of the Boothbay Region schools and you have questions about enrolling your child in the dental care program, please call Kacy at 633-1934.