Seattle's Whittier Elementary School was the site for the first major push from a coalition of child health advocates who hope to make in-school dental screenings the rule, not the exception, throughout Washington state. Low-income children tend to miss a disproportionate amount of school due to oral health problems.
Oral disease keeps kids out of school and later, out of work.
It can lead to inadequate nutrition and speech problems, and distract children from concentrating on schoolwork. It's shameful that we have the technology to prevent most dental disease if we reach all children when they are young, but we haven't made the commitment. Forty percent of Washington employees lack dental insurance. Oral health is an important part of overall health, and we need our kids healthy so they come into the classroom ready to learn. Child health should be a prerequisite to education, according to Seattle School Board President Don Nielsen .