Tony Morales donned red sunglasses and a wide smile as he took a seat in the dental chair for his check-up Tuesday morning.

Morales was one of 14 under-privileged children provided access to a mobile clinic at the Welcome Center in Austin.

Children’s Dental Health Services, a non-profit organization based in Rochester that provides preventative dental care to the uninsured and people utilizing medical assistance across southeast Minnesota, set up a makeshift “office” at the Welcome Center, their second visit there this summer.

Using grant funding from the United Way, Delta Dental and Smiles Across Minnesota, CDHS saw approximately 300 uninsured preschool-age through 14-year-old children in Austin last year at schools, the Headstart program and public health offices.

The two dental hygienists provide cleanings, fluoride treatments and flossing; other work is referred to dentists who accept medical assistance.

“A big part of the emphasis is education,” said Kevin Lukis, CDHS consultant. “We have young kids drinking a lot of soda. (We are) trying to develop good oral health habits.”

CDHS was awarded a grant recently for digital X-rays.

“That will be a big boost to what we do,” Lukis said, because X-rays can be submitted to dentists.

Austin first made the mobile clinics available last year at Woodson Kindergarten and Sumner Elementary; this year, clinics will be held in the spring and fall at Headstart, Woodson and all elementaries.

The Welcome Center’s executive director, Liliana Silvestry, said the mobile clinic is “needed in this community.

“Not many dentists cover medical assistance here locally,” she said. “This is a great place. I think this was a great opportunity for us.”

Silvestry said the non-profit notified potential patients of the clinic via call lists, fliers and word-of-mouth.

Twenty-nine patients utilized the clinic at the Welcome Center one day in July.

Currently, CDHS has ran out of funding to assist the uninsured; they only served children on medical assistance Tuesday.

Kris Billman, dental hygienist and CDHS executive director, explained that people who find it most difficult to obtain dental care are the “working poor who don’t qualify through assistance.”

For more information, call Children’s Dental Health Services at (507) 273-7257.