Backpacks, Binders, and Better Oral Health: Studies Highlight High Value of School-Based Dental Programs

Back to school means back to routines—and that includes students’ oral health care. In communities across the U.S., school-based dental programs reach underserved children with screenings, preventive care, and oral health education and supplies. This is essential care: By age 8, 52% of children have had a cavity in their baby teeth, and children from low-income families are twice as likely to have cavities. Children with poor oral health are more likely to miss school and have academic problems at school.

Prevention Pays Off
Cavities are entirely preventable, yet they remain the leading chronic disease of childhood in the U.S. Fluoride treatments are minimally-invasive treatments that can be used in school programs to both prevent cavities and slow the progression of existing cavities. Two recent articles highlight the effectiveness of this type of school-based preventive oral health care: 

• A 2025 review of 31 published studies involving 60,780 students indicated that school fluoride varnish programs reduced new cavities by 32% in permanent teeth and by 25% in primary teeth, as well as reducing the progression of small cavities to more severe cavities by 10%. The school programs were primarily implemented in lower-income communities and achieved meaningful levels of student participation.
• Results of a four-year study in New York City schools published in 2025 indicated that fluoride varnish treatments used as part of school-based dental care can effectively control cavities.

Fewer cavities can mean fewer missed days of school, and easier concentration on schoolwork. Better oral health can also tie into better nutrition, as tooth pain can affect children’s eating habits.  

Diverse Support Keeps School Dental Programs Strong
School-based dental programs succeed through a network of support that includes government funding, community partnerships, and collaboration with payers and others in the specialty benefits ecosystem:

• State Medicaid programs are helping bridge the gap in access to dental care. For instance, Wisconsin’s Seal-A-Smile program focuses on providing school-based dental sealants, and Maryland’s Healthy Smiles Dental Program also includes school-based treatments. In Texas, Smiles in Schools provides on-site dental clinics in schools and preschools, addressing oral health needs in a convenient setting. Tennessee’s School Based Dental Prevention Program provides screenings, referrals, and preventive treatments like sealants and fluoride varnish to students in eligible schools.
• The University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry and others partner with local schools to provide dental screenings, basic treatments and oral health education to students.
• Delta Dental Foundation partnered with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to support the SEAL! Michigan program for dental screenings and sealants for students in elementary and middle schools.  

As the new school year begins, school-based oral health programs continue to be as important as textbooks, school lunch programs and other resources for students’ overall well-being and academic success.
 

About SKYGEN
SKYGEN transforms dental and vision benefits management and administration with flexible technology and services that connect and change lives for the better. Through partnerships with payers, providers and government agencies, SKYGEN helps its customers navigate dental and vision benefits management and administration. With its portfolio of third-party administration (TPA), intelligent Software as a Service (SaaS) automation, marketplace connectivity, risk management solutions and above-and-beyond services like Enhanced Benefit Management (EBM), Provider Select Suite platforms, mobile apps and portals, SKYGEN serves nearly 50 million members across all 50 states, more than 40 government and commercial insurers and process 3 million claims monthly. For more information, please visit www.skygenusa.com.