About Us 

History of Miles Of Smiles, Ltd.
MILES OF SMILES, LTD. is a dynamic company with state-of-the-art independent contractors made up of dental professionals (dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants).

The original concept of Illinois school-based dental care was conceived in the late 1970’s by Dr. Robert Cross. This was due to the inability of many public aid children meeting the dental exam school code requirements for entering grades 5 & 9. Each year in Peoria, IL there were 1200-1300 children barred from school for not complying with the October 15th deadline. This became a conflict between the Peoria Public Health Department (PPHD) and the Peoria #150 School District. The PPHD dentists attempted a solution by going to the schools & examining as many children as had “signed consent” forms. This had some success, however, more was needed.

In 1987, the Illinois Department of Public Health Division of Oral Health (IDPH), funded the first Dental Sealant Grant in the amount of $50,000. It was designed solely to provide dental sealants to the children on public aid in Peoria County. Peoria County also had access to a dental van which had two operatories for dental delivery at the schools. This early program had two major problems. The first was that the van needed more electrical power than what was available at most schools. The second was that the dental sealant materials were not always effective.

During the second year, the IDPH Division of Oral Health divided the grant between Peoria and East St. Louis. Additionally, the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA) reached a decision not to pay for dental sealants. This persisted for several years until a strong push was made by the director of the IDPH Division of Oral Health, Ray Flanders. He influenced the IDPA to modify their decision. There were very tight restrictions placed upon Illinois dentists based upon the IDPA guidelines of sealants only being available to 2nd and 6th grade children. This was based upon the operative reasoning that the greatest value was to protect the newly erupted 6 year and 12 year molars corresponding with those grade levels.

After the 1988 conference of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, major emphasis was being placed upon dental health. This led to the federal government devising the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment program (EPSDT). This was a comprehensive child health program that provided for initial and periodic exams and medically necessary follow-up care. In Illinois, the EPSDT program, called Healthy Kids, established access to quality primary and preventive health care services at a level equal to the general population. The dental health goal was to provide screenings, by a dentist, of 66% of the children described as indigent. The highest percentage of children being screened were to be public aid recipients, but a percentage could also be low-income, non-public aid children.

Delta Dental Plan of Illinois (DDPI), the insurance company for Public Aid at the time, began to look for contractors to provide services for their dental program recipients. The response was less than outstanding because of the low re-imbursement rate by the DDPI. The one person who stepped forward was a dental hygienist from Peoria. She was confident that her program would not only provide the EPSDT screenings by licensed dentists, but that it would also deliver dental sealants by contracted hygienists at various locations after the screenings.

Since the two programs (EPSDT and DDPI) were unable to attract any other contractors, her corporation was allowed to provide the services as a state-wide program with the exception of Chicago. (It was politically decided that Chicago would develop their own program). The demands of this rapid expansion proved to be more than one corporation could handle. Thus, it was decided to split the corporation into three separate companies. These three groups were formed by the work crews that were already providing services to the designated areas of the state.

One of these companies was/is Miles of Smiles, Ltd. These independent contractors are encouraged to hone their skills beyond their dental expertise. They have gone “that extra mile” to ensure the growth and success of the company.

Other exciting changes have been: the development and utilization of state-of-the-art mobile dental equipment (early attempts to utilize equipment were semi-mobile at best or were inadequate for the job); greatly improved dental materials (including sealant materials and curing lights); and enhanced dental health and awareness for the population that is served due to the use of fluorides, sealants, & preventive dental health care.

Miles of Smiles, Ltd., in cooperation with the Healthy Kids primary goal, “puts prevention into practice”. They provide greatly needed preventive dental services to deserving children by a caring group of experienced dental professionals.