Thank you for that.
School-based systems, I think, have always been shown to work for finding kids who have high needs. Some provinces have targeted school-based programs where providers go to schools in areas where they know the risk is going to be higher. In Ontario, for example, some areas might have screening and fluoride. Varnish is applied, and depending on the scope of practice for the dental hygienist or dental therapist, they can offer treatments within the schools. Saskatchewan used to have probably one of the most world-renowned school-based programs through the sixties, seventies and eighties. The challenge is that they are costly to run, and given all the pressure that provinces have, those tend to be cut or stripped down first.
The idea is that there need to be parallel systems within the provinces and within local municipalities. This requires partnerships with school boards, but not just focusing on children. We do a pretty good job with oral health prevention and screening for our younger kids, particularly those in kindergarten up to grade 7. Once they hit high school, we lose track of them, and that's even more so for seniors in long-term care, where we're not going to assess their needs as readily.
It's about combining resources. It doesn't have to be just the oral health professionals involved in this. We need to partner with any caregivers, like nurses and physicians, who can look in the mouth to identify problems so patients can get into the system, whether it's to be referred to their dentist for private care or enrolled in a public program. That broadens how we get patients into the programs they need, and then they can get care.
It starts by looking in the mouth, whether it's in the schools or the areas where that's needed the most.