Press release from Eblen Charities:
Children in the Buncombe County and Asheville City School Systems will have a reason to smile beginning Friday, January 13, 2017 as the Eblen Charities Dental Sealant Partnership begins its sixteenth year of service to students in our community.
This Friday, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community will once again open their doors to host the Eblen Dental Sealant Clinic and will do so each Friday until the end of May.
Emma Elementary School will start off the program this year that will serve hundreds of children and seal thousands of teeth.
This partnership was developed to provide dental sealants to all second graders in need in the Buncombe County and Asheville City School Systems at no charge to the students, their families, or the school system.
“This is a vital program that is unique to our community,” states Dr. Keith Black, Orthodontist and chairman of Seal the State in ‘98 Dental Initiative, “Eblen Charities has developed a number of dental programs along with the Buncombe County Dental Society to assist children with emergency dental needs. So much of dental health is about prevention and avoiding decay and that can lead to more serious problems. The sealant program helps provide that prevention.”
In partnership with the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, the Buncombe County Health and Human Services, The Buncombe County Dental Society, area dental hygienists and dental assistants, Densply, Inc. Patterson Dental Supply, Buncombe County and Asheville City Schools, the Eblen Dental Sealant Partnership has since its inception, sealed more than 25,000 teeth and served more than 7,000 children.
Working together, through this partnership, costs have been drastically reduced from more than $100 per tooth to less than 20 cents per tooth. The Eblen Dental Sealant Program has been honored with regional and national awards including the GlaxoSmithKline Child Health Recognition award and the National Linkages Award.
The Dental Sealant Program is open to all second-graders in the Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools who are in need of sealants and whose molars are ready and show no decay. There is no financial eligibility to be able to receive the sealants.
For more information on the Eblen Dental Sealant Partnership or to volunteer, please contact Bill Murdock at the Eblen Charities at
828-242-2848 via email at wmurdock@eblencharities.org or visit www.eblencharities.org.
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