Parents and caregivers please note: GKAS® events are not open to the general public. If you are looking for reduced or free dental care for your child, click here for more information.

• Overview
• Ten years of GKAS®
• Register
• Press releases
• Identifying kids in need
• Dental records
• HIPAA
• Liability and abandonment issues
• GKAS® event promotion resources
• GKAS® e-Update archives

Overview

Since 2003 when the Wisconsin Dental Association joined the American Dental Association in launching Give Kids A Smile®, dentists, dental team members, dental and hygiene students and community volunteers have provided nearly $5 million in care to 34,941 Wisconsin youngsters.

WDA dentists may choose to work with community clinics, public health departments or school nurses to identify and treat children most in need of dental care. Sometimes a dental component society may organize a large-scale GKAS® event in cooperation with a specific youth or social service organization. In other Wisconsin communities, groups of school children welcome WDA dentists into their classrooms to learn about good daily oral hygiene practices, while other students visit private dental practices where they receive basic services such as teeth cleaning and exams.

Because GKAS® activities vary substantially across Wisconsin depending on local dentist involvement, the WDA does not make referrals for care.

Public individuals seeking more information about GKAS® programs should click here.

Ten years of GKAS®

Every year for 10 years, on the first Friday in February, dentists across the state and their dental team members have provided free oral health care services to children from low-income families.

GKAS® goals remain to:

• Provide care to children in need
• Educate elected officials and the public about the need for meaningful policy solutions that address barriers to dental care facing the state’s most vulnerable children

Register with ADA and WDA

Registering your event online with both the ADA and the WDA only takes a few minutes and helps us track participation and highlight, through pre-event publicity to policymakers and the media, the difficulty many poor children in our state face in accessing dental care.

Registering your event with the ADA

The deadline to apply for free dental product resources from the ADA was Nov. 11. A list of product recipients was posted on Dec. 1.

If selected, you should receive products by the week of Jan. 9. If you do not receive your free products by this time, email GKAS@ada.org.

This cutoff is necessary due to shipping requirements. Please remember the ADA and GKAS® sponsors review all requests and demand is always higher than product availability.

Registering your event with the WDA

Sign up with the WDA gives your event access to FREE resources:

• FREE "Sip All Day, Get Decay" stickers for pediatric patients treated at your GKAS® event.

• Two FREE dual-sided posters in English that target both younger children and teens (available in Spanish upon request)

• FREE pediatric dental records to use in conjunction with your GKAS® event (more details here)

• Your event highlighted in WDA pre-event publicity to state, regional and local media

You must register your GKAS® event with the WDA by Jan. 13, 2012 to take advantage of these special offers!

• Click here to register

Press releases

Participants that registered their GKAS® 2012 events with the WDA by Jan. 13 were included in press releases. For help with media interviews, contact WDA Public Relations Director Carol Weber at 414-755-4108 or cweber@wda.org.

2012 press releases:

• Statewide release
• Northwest Region 1
• Northeast Region 2
• Greater Milwaukee Region 3
• Southeast Region 4
• Southwest Region 5

Additional resources

• Talking points
• How to do media interviews

Identifying kids in need

Momentum for GKAS® can be generated by state and local dental societies, dentists in private and public practice, dental schools, dental health insurance companies and industry partners working in local coalitions. Such partnerships can:

1. Identify key access barriers in the provision of oral health care to target populations
2. Explore alternative ways to address these barriers
3. Create opportunities for community members to join together in expanding access
4. Develop a sustainable action plan for implementing local oral health care access programs for the target populations

The following are links to local resources that might help your event find low-income children in your area:

• Boys & Girls Clubs
• Head Start centers
• Social service agencies
• United Way chapters
• Faith-based groups in the community
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Public School District Directory (Look up your local school district, contact them and ask the school nurse to help you find low-income children in need of dental care.)
• Wisconsin Local Public Health Departments
• Wisconsin Division of Public Health's Chief Dental Officer Dr. Warren LeMay at 608-256-5152 or warren.lemay@dhs.wisconsin.gov.

Dental records

The Dental Record, A Division of WDA Professional Services is again providing two of its forms - Dental Medical History and Children's Clinical Examination - for use in conjunction with GKAS® events. The Child Medical History form also is available in Spanish.

Participants should not photocopy the copyrighted forms and are asked to purchase any forms for non-GKAS® needs directly through The Dental Record at 800-243-4675.

If you would like forms to use for your event, please call 800-364-7646 after you have registered your event with the WDA and ADA.

Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA)

GKAS® does not involve filing claims, so participating dentists are not required to use HIPAA privacy forms for their events. However, the ADA recommends the use of HIPAA privacy forms as a "good faith" effort and to alleviate any concerns parents or volunteers might have.

The ADA developed the following forms in English and Spanish for use with GKAS®:

Notice of Privacy Practices

• English
• Spanish
  

Acknowledgement Form

• English
• Spanish

Liability and abandonment issues

The following documents are posted in Microsoft Word format so they can be personalized for your event:

• Waiver form (includes photo waiver)
• Handout for GKAS® event day (reminder of waiver signed)

The ADA has provided further HIPAA information in the Legal, Insurance and Risk-Management Considerations Guide.

GKAS® event promotion tools

Inviting elected officials

The WDA strongly encourages participating dental offices to invite their elected officials to their GKAS® events.

Inviting policymakers to interact with patients in need who live in their districts puts real faces on the problems that often go unnoticed. GKAS® events also illustrate that dentists want to be part of the solution, but the profession simply cannot do this alone. 

Coalitions of community leaders and organizations with an understanding of and appreciation for oral health and related barriers to care issues strengthen the WDA’s legislative messages in Madison.

Help make a long-term difference by inviting your city, county or state officials to your GKAS® event to show them how you serve the neediest in your community. This also is a perfect opportunity to educate them about the basic differences between the medical and dental care delivery models and the important connection between oral health and overall well-being.

The following tools can help you invite legislators to your GKAS® events:

• Custom invitation (PDF file)
• Letter template (Word document)

Not sure who your legislators are? View the Wisconsin Legislative Directory.

If you would like assistance sending a letter to your legislator, please call 800-364-7646.

Letter to the Editor and press release templates

Highlighting for public officials, media and the general public the ongoing challenges disadvantaged families face in finding dental care is another GKAS® goal. The following templates are Word documents for easy customizing after your event:

• 2012 Letter to the Editor template
• 2012 press release template

GKAS® e-Update archives

View past issues of the Give Kids A Smile® e-Update. Subscribe to this e-newsletter for tips and guidelines for planning a GKAS® event, including in-office, group and component-wide events and classroom presentations.

• February 2012
• December 2011
• October 2011