Health Starts With a Smile

One of the most miraculous things about being a kid is that sometimes all it takes to make a new friend is a smile. But if you’ve ever suffered from a toothache — or any other oral health condition — you know that smiling can be a lot harder than it appears. Ensuring Edmonton kids have the opportunity to smile with confidence — and all the benefits that go along with that — is priority number one for the University of Alberta’s School Visit Program.

Running for the past three decades, the School Visit Program provides comprehensive dental care for Edmonton students who otherwise might not have access to it. And the best part? It’s free. “We think of the [University of Alberta’s] School of Dentistry as our dentistry angels,” says Shauna Stelmaschuk, the principal of St. Catherine Catholic Elementary/Junior High School. “They’ve had such a huge impact on so many of our students.”

Until recently, the School Visit Program saw the university’s dental faculty travelling to several Edmonton-area schools each academic year to provide in-house cleanings, screenings and dental procedures. But, in recent years, funding concerns forced the program to alter its operations, according to Dr. Ida Kornerup, the discipline lead of pediatric dentistry with the University of Alberta. “We didn’t have the money to continue providing treatment pro bono for these kids,” Kornerup says.

Faced with the reality of potentially shuttering the program, Kornerup and the university reached out to a handful of partners — including Edmonton Community Foundation, who provided an $80,000 grant — to alter the way the program was delivered and ensure its sustainability for students in need. “We stopped doing the school visits and instead the students come to us in smaller groups at the oral health clinic here at the university,” Kornerup says. “Because of that money they gave us, we’ve been able to continue the program.”

And continuing the program has proved very much in need in Edmonton, based on the number of students the faculty has been able to help this year. Initially, those involved with the School Visit Program set a benchmark of providing care for 500 students in the 2023-24 academic year. They’ve since eclipsed that goal, having provided 5,300 procedures for about 800 students.

And those procedures have very real and very tangible benefits, not the least of which is ensuring the health and development of Edmonton’s children, which Kornerup says can be seriously impacted when dental health concerns aren’t addressed in short order. “It can be cyclical. If [kids] are experiencing pain, then they’re not eating as well. They can become malnourished. That can lead to other problems, too. Problems like stunted growth, lower brain development, abscesses and infections,” Kornerup says.

Not all of those potential outcomes can be prevented with just a simple fluoride-and-floss routine. Many of those the program helps are suffering from more than minor cavities. That’s why the program offers truly comprehensive care. “Radiographs, exams, treatment plans,” Kornerup says. “We provide everything from root canals to fillings to extractions, education and oral health training. The only thing we don’t do is braces.”

That can make a big difference in the lives of those who are struggling to access dental care, which, as Kornerup points out, can be a difficult task for more than just monetary reasons. “It’s not always an economic issue that can inhibit a child’s access to outside dental care,” she says. “There are issues of transportation, childcare concerns, conflicting work schedules. There are a lot of barriers against the treatment of pediatric dentistry that make programs like this one important.”

And it’s not just physical health that depends on the work Kornerup and her students provide. Proper oral health can have big impacts on academic performance and even social development in kids and youth. “If you’ve ever had a toothache, you know it’s one of the most annoying pains imaginable,” Kornerup says. “You can’t function. When you’re a kid dealing with this, you can have trouble paying attention. That can lead to poor performance at school and even social issues with peers.”

As an educator, Stelmaschuk has seen students struggle to manage both health concerns and academics and the benefits of the care the program provides are evident to her. “When students are coming to school and experiencing pain from dental issues, this program gives them that relief and comfort so they can focus on other things confidently and more comfortably,” she says. And that outcome is something worth smiling about.