R-2404-21118

Founded in 2009, More Smiles Wisconsin is a Madison, WI-based 501(c)(3) safety net dental clinic that provides care to over 2,000 low-income individuals via staff and volunteer dentists. Their Hometown Smiles (HTS) program is an innovative initiative geared at building infrastructure and partnerships across the state.

Through HTS, each student served by the existing school-based dental prevention program will be paired with dentists who will identify and address dental needs before they become emergencies. Working with schools and prevention programs in their communities, participating dentists will visit their respective schools twice per year to perform comprehensive and periodic exams, and, if students need care, will work with school and HTS staff to triage students into their offices for care.

HTS will implement online referral and tracking systems and coordinate the enrollment and records management for all participating dentists, prevention programs, and schools to ensure seamless transition and ease of use to promote dentist participation and collaboration. The DDS can either donate care or utilize HTS’s care coordinator to complete Medicaid enrollment and billing on their behalf. HTS’s will also coordinate school staff, collect and store consent forms, upload proposed and completed treatment plans into the HTS portal, data tracking, and establish portal access, training, and/or technical support to participating dentists as needed.

A pilot study of the HTS program at two elementary schools in La Crosse, WI revealed the biggest barrier to students receiving care beyond school screenings is care coordination and logistics. In the two schools, 30% of children had treatment needs after the first exam. After the second exam later in the school year, there were no new treatment needs identified. 54 appointments were scheduled with three local participating dentists in their private practices with zero no-show appointments. This cemented the importance and need of this program to be implemented in communities statewide.

More Smiles Wisconsin is requesting $125,000 for this work, which is 15% of the organization’s overall budget. About $74,000 will be utilized to support staff, $20,000 for website, lunch and learn meals and promotional materials, $31,000 for DDS champion, subject matter experts and form creations. The remainder will go toward indirect expenses.

This proposal is one of ten selected finalists for the School-Based and School-Linked Initiatives to Improve Oral Health RFP.