Gov. Haley Barbour, seated center, signs a proclamation designating Feb. 4 as Give Kids a Smile Day in Mississippi as his wife, Marsha, seated left, and Dr. Butch Gilbert, Jr., seated right, senior associate dean in dentistry, look on. Cheering the governor are, standing from left, Dr. Kaye Bender, dean of the School of Nursing; Sandra Shelson, director of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi; Dr. Eleanor Gill, president-elect of the Mississippi Dental Association; Beckie Barry, associate professor and chair of the Department of Dental Hygiene; Dr. Neva Eklund, assistant professor of pediatric dentistry; and Dr. Karen Crews, interim assistant dean for extramural affairs and institutional advancement.

Galloway Elementary School student Regina Bogan says she is going to change her eating habits after visiting the dentist Feb. 4 and learning she has cavities.

"I don't need to eat too much junk," said the 10-year-old who loves to eat candy.

Regina was one of about 1,200 elementary students who received free dental care Feb. 4 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center's School of Dentistry, the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center and Ruleville Central Elementary School as part of Give Kids a Smile Day.

Give Kids A Smile Day is a national program founded in 2002 by the American Dental Association to raise awareness of the importance of providing dental care to children in underserved communities.

The day provided an opportunity for some students to see a dentist for the first time.
"Most of the children are really involved in their own in-home health care," said Tracy Dellinger, an associate professor of dentistry at the Medical Center. "We did see some that had very gross dental decay and a lot of dental needs. Hopefully, this will be an avenue for them to receive further care down the road."

The American Dental Association recommends that children see a dentist no later than their first birthday, yet only three out of five children see a dentist before kindergarten.

In Mississippi, public health programs, such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, help provide health and dental care to underserved children, but the programs' usage rates are low.

"Only 26.1 percent of Mississippi's children enrolled in Medicaid received any dental care in 2003," said Dr. Karen Crews, interim assistant dean for extramural affairs in the School of Dentistry. "Sadly, that means only one out of four children eligible for services received care."

Nationwide, about 500,000 children received preventive dental care, such as sealants, as a result of Give Kids A Smile Day. An estimated 40,000 dentists, volunteers and others participated in the national program.

Gov. Haley Barbour signed a proclamation on the second floor of the School of Dentistry designating Feb. 4 as Give Kids a Smile Day in Mississippi, a few hours after buses began arriving on the Medical Center campus with the elementary students.

"When I was a school kid, dentists talked about flossing and brushing and putting fluoride in the water to try to prevent cavities," Barbour told a small crowd at the School of Dentistry. "I always thought, 'Gee, they are out there working, so they won't have any business.' It turns
out you all still have plenty of business."

At the Medical Center and the medical mall, dentists treated several busloads of students from Galloway and Johnson Elementary schools. The students also attended a health fair, receiving tips how to eat healthy, exercise, brush their teeth and the dangers of smoking and tobacco use.

In Ruleville, students received dental care aboard the Mercy Delta Express, the Medical Center's mobile dental clinic, and also attended a health fair.

According to Bessie Gardner, Ruleville Central Elementary School principal, the goal of Give Kids A Smile Day was to teach students to take care of themselves now so they won't have significant health problems when they become adults.

"Students can't come to school and learn anything if they have any level of deficiency or health problem," she said. "If they are taught at an early age to get help, then maybe they won't let it deteriorate to the point of no return. We're trying to work on people being healthy in the Delta. Too much time is lost when they're older and ignoring the problem. If we can start training them now, we're hoping it will take them through life."

Editor's note: Give Kids A Smile Day was made possible through partnerships with Galloway, Johnson and Ruleville Central elementary schools, the University Medical Center's Schools of Dentistry, Health Related Professions-Dental Hygiene and Nursing and the A Comprehensive Tobacco Center, the Mississippi Dental Association, the Mississippi State Department of Health, the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center and the Central Mississippi Dental Hygienists' Association. Corporate sponsors include Ultradent, Patterson Dental Supply, Sullivan Schein, Practicon, Clinical Supply, Nextel Partners, Premier Dental Products, Office Depot, Wal-Mart, Medline, Business Interiors, Oral B Business and Interiors, Winstead Laboratory and Capteck Precious Chemical USA, Inc.