Pediatric Dental Center

Providence Smiles

James R. Hosmer, D.M.D Dental Director, Providence Smiles

Every day of the school year three mobile dental teams have been rotating among ten Providence elementary schools and providing thousands of children with oral health education, prevention and outreach services.

This is the Providence Smiles program which launched in 1997 as a private/public partnership with national funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local support from the Rhode Island Foundation, the Health and Education Leadership in Providence (HELP) coalition, the Providence School Department and the RI Departments of Health and Human Services. Charged with the goal of increasing access to dental care for low-income and immigrant children, Providence Smiles has, by all accounts, had a significant impact.

“When this program started, we knew elementary school students had dental problems that needed treatment,” says James R. Hosmer, D.M.D. Dental Director, Providence Smiles. “What amazed me was the depth of the problems - they were far worse than I had ever imagined.”
With parental consent, children are eligible for sealants, cleanings and flouride treatments. Children with more serious dental problems and no family dentist are referred to the St. Joseph Hospital Pediatric Dental Center for follow up care.

Education is also an important component of the program, which is why Providence Smiles' dental hygienists routinely demonstrate proper brushing to children, both in the classroom and individually. A custom-designed oral health and hygiene curriculum is taught to kindergarten through fifth grade students as well.
“The Providence Smiles program has made
remarkable progress on addressing one of the most pressing health care issues for low-income and uninsured school-aged children - access to dental care.”
- United States Senator Jack Reed

Providence Smiles is already helping other communities such as Pawtucket replicate and grow the program. In the future, Providence Smiles hopes to make an impact on children even before they enter school, by performing dental screenings at local Head Start programs, a federally funded pre-school initiative. “What we find now is that approximately 40 percent of kindergarten students have tooth decay,” says Hosmer. “If we can identify children at-risk for dental problems at a younger age we can solve many of their dental problems.”

There are some hidden benefits to these programs as well. “I often hear kids say, ’When I grow up, I want to be a hygienist or a dentist.’ Now that makes me smile,” says Hosmer.