Washington State Smile Partners is making a difference
Tooth decay is preventable and can even be reversed, but early treatment is important. By making dental care affordable and easy to access, we help more children and seniors get the oral health care they need.

Through our programs we:

• Educate patients about how to take care of their teeth and gums

• Screen for dental disease and signs of oral cancer

• Clean teeth and treat incipient cavities and gum disease

• Assist those with urgent care needs to find a dentist

Our records show dramatic declines in new or recurring tooth decay in the thousands of children and seniors we have served —even years after initial treatment.

Smiles at School
Children from low-income families are more than twice as likely to have untreated dental disease. Smiles at School is a program bringing dental care to public schools with a high percentage of students in subsidized school-lunch programs. We also work in preschools, including Headstart and ECEAP classrooms, and daycare centers.

Smiles at School provides a stable base where each child receives ongoing preventive care tailored to his or her needs. Our teams of professional dental hygienists work onsite during school to clean teeth and screen children for dental disease.

Children also receive fluoride varnish and dental sealants, when needed. For more serious dental problems, we help families find local dentists who accept Medicaid.

Smiles for Life
Seniors are among those in greatest need of dental care and are more at risk of suffering from serious side effects that can accompany tooth decay or gum disease —including pneumonia, heart attack and stroke. But few have dental insurance and Medicare doesn't cover their dental costs.

Smiles for Life offers low-cost oral health care to seniors 60 years and older at the Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center. It is the only preventive program for seniors in Kitsap County and one of the first of its kind in the state.

Pilot Programs
Mom and Me, Cavity Free: This ground-breaking program for moms and babies opened in 2008 at Harrison Medical Center in Silverdale. Our goal was to make oral health a routine part of prenatal and postnatal care.

Because mothers can pass cavity-causing bacteria to their children, we educated low-income pregnant women about how to protect their baby's oral health. Moms were screened for dental problems and treated before they gave birth.

We followed up with routine exams and cleanings for both mother and child. This highly popular and succesful program ended in 2010.

Project Smart Smiles: A 2-year pilot project funded by the Group Health Community Foundation in 2007. This program was similar to our Smiles at School program, but expanded what we deliver to cover more children. We also collected data to help evaluate the effectiveness of school-based programs.