HUNTINGTON -- A Marshall University program that offers free dental care at school found fewer than half of those elementary students surveyed had a regular dentist, despite nearly 75 percent having some sort of dental insurance.

The West Virginia School Community Partnership, now in its second year, offers exams, cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants. The recent results were based on a year of screenings and research at schools in 10 counties.

Dental professionals visited 66 schools where they screened 2,306 students. The schools were located in Berkeley, Calhoun, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Monroe and Wood counties.

The screenings found 43.1 percent of students to have untreated decay; 51.6 percent had evidence of prior cavities; and 43.2 percent had problems in need of treatment within six months.

Bobbi Jo Muto, the state's Community Oral Health Coordinator, found the students' lack of a regular dentist to be most startling considering that most have some sort of dental coverage.

"That will be the next question I would like to have answered," she said.

Muto speculated some reasons may include parents who do not make dental visits a priority. Other reasons could be too great of a driving distance or lack of a dentist who will accept government insurance.

Marshall's Center for Rural Health runs the program, which is funded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

The outreach program is aimed at changing generational attitudes about oral health by reaching children earlier.

No results were available for five counties -- Mingo, Boone, Nicholas, Jackson and Wirt. Muto said those counties are still in their beginning stages.

Cabell, Mason, Putnam and Wayne counties did not request grant funding for the program, Muto said. She hopes additional funding becomes available to offer the program to more areas.

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