Helping children smile

Since December 2019, the Flying Doctor has been a part of the Smile Squad school dental program – an initiative of the Victorian Government to bring free dental care to all Victorian public primary and secondary schools.

While COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions severely impacted the program in the last financial year, our dental trucks were still able to hit the road and visit a total of seven schools from February to May in 2021. This included Buchan Primary School in East Gippsland, Nullawil Primary School in the Mallee and Charlton College in the Wimmera, which has a total of 29 students in 2021.

The Flying Doctor is incredibly proud to be one of Smile Squad’s dedicated partners, as our involvement in this program allows us to help ensure that children, no matter where they live, can access free dental care in their own town. It is through partnerships like this that we as an organisation can do more for the communities we serve, as we pair our skills and experience in providing high quality mobile health services with the vison and reach of the Victorian Government.

“The Flying Doctor Dental team was flexible and accommodating, and we really appreciated the fact that new students to the school could sign up for the 2021 program, even though they were not enrolled when we initially signed up with [the program],” says Natasha Saunders, the Student Wellbeing Coordinator at Charlton College.

“The fact that you were so self-sufficient was also greatly appreciated.

“Thanks for all that you did to support our students and families, who otherwise may not have been able to access dental services for a range of reasons.”

Smile Squad is accredited to all relevant National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, and is overseen by the Department of Health, the Department of Education and Dental Health Services Victoria to ensure the program is delivered safely