Care Clinic recognized by oral health coalition, department of health | Local News

The Minnesota Oral Health Coalition (MOHC) and the Minnesota Department of Health, Oral Health Program announce that CARE Clinic has been recognized as one of two 2024 Minnesota SEAL of Quality School-Based Sealant Program Winners in the State of Minnesota.

CARE Clinic’s mission is to “contribute to the Community by improving health care access, connecting people to resources and promoting health education. The clinic serves families who are uninsured or enrolled in Medicaid or MinnesotaCare insurance. CARE Clinic celebrated its 15-year anniversary as a nonprofit clinic in January. For 10 years, the clinic operated a volunteer-based dental extraction program. In 2020 CARE Clinic expanded their dental program and became a Critical Access Dental (CAD) Clinic. The clinic now offers preventative and restorative care both within the walls of the clinic and out in the community. CARE Clinic provides school-based dental cleanings and sealants in five school districts in Goodhue County. CARE Clinic recently expanded its service area into Wabasha County and acquired the CARE-a-Van, a mobile dental clinic.

School-based dental sealant programs are conducted within the school with oral health professionals (e.g., dental hygienists) using portable equipment in a temporary location; in a fixed clinical facility, such as a school-based health center; or in a mobile dental van parked on school property.

The Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Oral Health Coalition present The SEAL of Quality Award, which aims to provide Minnesota’s school-based dental sealant programs the opportunity to identify and highlight their organization’s unique strengths and opportunities based on the ASTDD’s Best Practice Approach on School-Based Dental Sealant Programs.

Dental sealants are clear or opaque protective coatings applied to the chewing surfaces of back teeth (molars) to prevent tooth decay. Sealants prevent initiation and arrest the progression of tooth decay by providing a physical barrier against microorganisms and food particles that collect in a tooth’s pits

and fissures.

CARE Clinic is honored to be a part of school sealant programs in Minnesota. For a decade, the clinic only had the capacity to meet the most urgent needs and to extract teeth, but now the clinic can apply sealants to help young people of the next generation keep their teeth healthy throughout their lives.

CARE Clinic is an integrated clinic which is another shared goal with the Minnesota Oral Health

Coalition. CARE Clinic’s medical, dental, mental health and MNsure programs work together to improve the health of families. In addition to school-linked dental care, CARE Clinic also provides school-based mental health services.

As a 2024 Quality School-Based Sealant Program winner, CARE Clinic receives a cash award and will be

recognized at the 2025 Minnesota Oral Health Coalition’s statewide conference.

CARE Clinic noted in the press release that it would like to thank all their donors, staff and volunteers who make the school-based sealant services possible. The dental program would especially like to recognize the support from its most generous donors: Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, South Country Health Alliance, Patterson Foundation, and the Minnesota Department of Health. The clinic could not provide critical oral health services without the support of individual, state, foundation, and corporate donors. 

Executive Director, Julie Malyon stated, “CARE Clinic is grateful to the Minnesota Oral Health Coalition for this sealant award and for the advocacy, resources, education and collaboration they provide to CARE Clinic and other Critical Access Dental Clinics.”