DOWAGIAC — Students at Dowagiac Union Schools will soon have the opportunity to improve their dental health by stopping tooth decay.

Throughout February the Van Buren Cass District Health Department’s dental hygienist will visit the elementary schools and Dowagiac Middle School to offer the SEAL! Michigan Dental Sealant Program. The program provides dental sealants on permanent molars. Sealants are thin coatings painted on the chewing surfaces of the back teeth and can prevent cavities or tooth decay for many years, according to the cdc.gov.

The program, first established in 2007, works to decrease the number of Michigan children with tooth decay and to allow access to oral health services for more residents, particularly among children from low-income families, according to Michigan.gov.

This is the fourth year that the Van Buren Cass Health Department’s dental hygienist will visit Dowagiac Union Schools.

This year, Dowagiac Union High School was added as a location for the program. On Feb.6, the dental hygienist and her assistant visited the building to administer the program.

“Each year, it’s grown a little bit,” said Dowagiac Union School Nurse Suzanne Dorman. “The elementary buildings probably try to utilize it more.”

Students will receive dental sealants on permanent molars at no cost to parents or guardians, Dorman said.

Students who have dental insurance will have the service billed to their insurance company. The SEAL! Michigan Dental Program will cover any amount not covered by insurance.

Dorman said the district tries to get the information out about the program on social media and on each school’s respective Facebook pages promptly.

“We send home the paperwork, and parents fill out all the information and then they bring it back into the school,” Dorman said.

In addition to offering sealant on molars, the program also provides oral health education and resources to help establish better dental practices at home.

Dorman said the hygienist scans the child’s molars to see if they can put the sealant on them. If a child needs a cleaning, the hygienist provides that service as well.

“They check for any other obvious dental issues, major cavities or anything else like that,” Dorman said.

The information from the child’s check-up is then sent home to their parents or guardians, Dorman said.

Before the program visits the school, elementary students will view presentations from the health department dental hygienist to get more information.

“The presentation gets the kids talking about dental health,” Dorman said. “It just kicks stuff off for the sealant program.”

Dorman said she feels the program is advantageous for families in the district, despite not seeing a massive number of participants.

“At the middle school, we don’t get a huge number of kids who participate,” Dorman said. “We get probably about a half a dozen or so. It’s really no cost for the families, so that is kind of nice.”