Brushing, flossing and avoiding sugary food and drinks can help keep teeth healthy.

So, too, can a plastic coating that can be installed in 15 minutes.

A Murray company last month announced it would begin helping all Utah school children receive that coating. The program is called Sealants for Smiles and it offers the coating to local school children at no charge.

"We just feel that it's time to give back to the community," said Roger Adams, a vice president at Dental Select and the new CEO of Sealants for Smiles.

The company is expanding. Once available only in the Granite and Salt Lake City school districts, the program moves into elementary schools in Davis, Tooele and Summit counties this year. And administrators plan to make the program available throughout Utah in two years.

The program involves going to elementary schools and teaching children how to care for their teeth. Then students in the first or second grades can receive a sealant placed on their back teeth.

Dental sealants are a plastic material applied on rear teeth to prevent cavities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises parents to install sealants on children shortly after their first molars emerge, usually at age 6.

The United Way started Sealants for Smiles in 2005 to help improve child dental health in the Salt Lake Valley. Since then, the program has placed about 5,000 sealants on the teeth of 2,000 children, according to the United Way.

Last month, the United Way announced it was transferring control of the program to one of its sponsors, the Murray-based insurance provider Dental Select. In turn, Dental Select has formed a charity to operate Sealants for Smiles and announced the program would be expanding.

Adams said by spring 2011, Sealants for Smiles hopes to have placed coatings in the mouths of half of all Utah children considered underserved because they do not have access to dental care.

"What we want to do is provide access," Adams said. "We want to have the access available to any and every child in Utah."

Adams said Sealants for Smiles expects to spend about $200,000 on dental care this year. Dental Select is assuming the charity's administrative costs, which could be as much as $500,000 when Sealants for Smiles goes statewide, Adams said.

Steven Steed, the state dental director at the Utah Department of Health, said oral health continues to be a problem in Utah, with a 2005 survey showing 61 percent of 8-year-olds suffering from tooth decay. Dental Select's taking over Sealants for Smiles might offer the program more resources and open opportunities for more government and charitable funding, Steed said.

"I think it's a great opportunity for children to get some preventive dental care [who] may not be otherwise able to do so," Steed said.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com