WHAT: Edgewood Independent School District second-graders will receive free dental sealant services from junior and senior dental students at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to noon Friday, Feb. 1, and Friday, Feb. 8
WHERE: Dental clinic in the Dental School building at the Health Science Center’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive
WHO: 700 Edgewood ISD second-graders will receive dental sealants during the two sessions. The free sealants are sponsored by Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas.
NOTES: Last year, 750 children were seen and 125 were referred to dentists in community health clinics for urgent care. This is the seventh year of the local partnership between the Health Science Center, Methodist Healthcare Ministries and the Edgewood ISD.
Media may interview parents and children, Health Science Center faculty, and representatives of Edgewood ISD and Methodist Healthcare Ministries.
A sealant in a private dental practice is worth about $25. The estimated value of the services that will be provided to the 700 children is estimated at more than $50,000. The Health Science Center donates professional services and Methodist Healthcare Ministries underwrites the cost of materials and transportation for the children.
Friday, Feb. 1, is National Give Kids a Smile Day.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $576 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.