Clinical Preventative Dental Services

Let’s Smile, Inc. delivers professional dental health care services focusing on preventing oral disease in children & adolescents utilizing a Collaborative Registered Dental Hygienist.

Let’s Smile, Inc.’s services align with the Minnesota standards.

Let’s Smile dental services are available for children and teenagers enrolled in State/County Insurance: Minnesota Health Care Plans (MHCP) including MA, South Country Health Alliance, Blue Plus, UCare, as well as uninsured patients.

If enrolled in a state/county assistance program, service fees will be billed to insurance, with unpaid amounts covered by grants. Uninsured patients will also have fees covered by grants and donations.

All dental services are provided at no charge to families thanks to grant/donation funding.

If the patient is covered by private dental insurance or additional/supplemental health insurance plans, please use other dental offices.

 Let’s Smile, Inc. promotes and educates the link between oral health and overall health by providing the following services:

• • Basic Screening Surveys (BSS): assess for broken enamel on teeth, detect infections in gum tissues, check for oral cancer, and inspect for the proper development of teeth.
  • Dental prophylaxis: removal of oral plaque, calculus, stains, and bacteria that cause cavities and oral infections.
  • Fluoride varnish treatment: strengthens the enamel of teeth to prevent cavities.
  • Sealants: when applied to chewing surfaces of molars, help to prevent cavities
  • Oral Hygiene Instructions
  • Take-home bags: include a toothbrush, floss, and toothpaste for each child; take-home fluoride rinse or anti-bacterial rinse will be provided as indicated by BSS.
  • Post-visit follow-up: evaluation, advisement, and documentation of untreated dental decay and/or concerns to parent/guardian and the school nurse or social worker if requested.
  • Referrals: directly referred to a general dentist or dental specialist as needed.

• Following bi-annual visits, we provide evaluation, advisement, and documentation of untreated dental decay and/or concerns to parent/guardian.

Let’s Smile, Inc. promotes and educates the link between oral health and overall health by providing the following C& TC Guidelines:

• The child’s history, clinical findings, and susceptibility to oral disease will determine the timing, selection, and frequency.
• Appropriate discussion and counseling will be an integral component of each visit.
• Will include counseling on toys, pacifiers, car seat use and passenger restraints, routine playing, sports and mouth guards. Will include counseling on the additional need for sucking; fingers vs pacifiers, then the need to wean from the habit before malocclusion or skeletal dysplasia occurs. For school-aged children and adolescents, counsel regarding habits such as nail-biting, clenching and grinding.

Minnesota’s Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) Program

Child and Teen Checkups (C&TC) is Minnesota’s Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program. EPSDT is a federal program required in every state to provide quality well-child care for children eligible for Medicaid. It is administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services with technical and clinical assistance from the Minnesota Department of Health.

Newborns, children, and adolescents, through the age of 20 who are eligible for Medicaid should get routine Child and Teen Checkups. There are over 500,000 children eligible for C&TC in Minnesota.

Comprehensive and periodic screening or well-child checkups are the foundation of the C&TC program. Periodic examinations or screenings are delivered according to the C&TC Schedule of Age-Related Screening Standards, also known as the Periodicity Schedule. This helps to assure that health problems are screened for, diagnosed, and treated early, before they become more complex and treatment becomes more costly.

Dental Checkup:  Verbally refer the child for their first dental examination at the time of the eruption of the first tooth in the mouth or no later than one year of age. An oral exam is performed as part of the physical exam at every C&TC screening. The health history information gathered from the parent or guardian during the C&TC screening or at a dental visit will help determine a child’s caries risk status. A child should see a dentist every 6 months or as indicated by the child’s risk status/susceptibility to disease.

To schedule an appointment or presentation:

507-455-4063

Email: letssmile@outlook.com