More than 40,000 backpacks filled with fun and educational oral health items are being distributed to more than 500 Minnesota schools as part of Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation’s Smiles@School education program. The program provides first-graders across Minnesota with tools to help them care for their teeth, including a toothbrush, fluoridated toothpaste, a water bottle, an educational booklet, and other fun items. The program also involves dental experts providing sealants and fluoride treatments to thousands of at-risk second-graders in schools across Minnesota.

The three-pronged program offers oral health education to all Minnesota first graders, provides preventive dental care to second-graders at schools with high rates of poverty, and plans to assess the oral health of third-graders in a 2020 survey led by the Minnesota Department of Health. The goal of the program is to get kids on the right track for maintaining lifelong healthy smiles. Since its onset in 2016, the Smiles@School first grade education program has served approximately 180,000 students.

“Smiles@School is one of the signature programs of the Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation. We are thrilled to educate Minnesota kids about the importance of oral health at such a critical age,” said Joe Lally, executive director of Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation. “Tooth decay is the most common childhood disease – even more common than asthma or allergies. We are proud that this program provides oral health treatments to thousands of children each year.”

Nationally, kids lose more than 51 million school hours each year due to dental disease.

According to a press release, Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation is founded on the belief that everyone deserves a healthy smile. In 2009, Delta Dental of Minnesota’s parent organization sold a company and used 100% of the proceeds to establish and fund the foundation.

The foundation’s mission is to improve the wellbeing of Minnesotans through oral health. To date, the foundation has invested more than $35 million to expand prevention and care, reaching more than 1 million people to promote healthy smiles statewide.