SCORES & OUTDOORS: How rare are black squirrels?

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From left to right: Black squirrel, Fox squirrel, and Grey squirrel.

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

I know they exist, but just how many are there?

Several years ago I had the rare opportunity to see a black squirrel in Waterville. Last Monday, while driving along the Seaward Mills Road, in Vassalboro, I spotted another one as it was crossing the road in front of me.

In North America, black squirrels are uncommon, with one estimate putting them at a rate of one in every 10,000 squirrels. In 1961, students at Kent State University, in Ohio, released 10 black squirrels that had been captured by Canadian wildlife authorities. The squirrels now populate the campus and have become the school’s unofficial mascot. Their coloring might help them hide from predators, which might come in handy at Kent State: The campus is also home to hawks.

Black squirrels have been spotted in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and now scientists believe they know why. Like many animals with unusual color schemes, black squirrels are the result of a genetic detour. Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge University, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History, collaborated on a project that tested squirrel DNA. Their findings, which were published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, demonstrated that the black squirrel is the product of interspecies breeding between the common grey squirrel and the fox squirrel.

The black squirrel is actually a grey squirrel with a faulty pigment gene carried over from the fox squirrel that turns their fur a darker shade. (Some fox squirrels, which are usually reddish-brown, are also black.)

Scientists theorize a black fox squirrel may have joined in on a mating chase involving grey squirrels and got busy with a female. The black fur may offer benefits in colder regions, with squirrels able to absorb and retain more heat, giving them a slight evolutionary edge.

According to Mental Floss’ Jake Rossen, black squirrels are relatively rare, constituting just one in 10,000 of the seemingly ubiquitous rodents.

Black squirrels are actually grey squirrels with a genetic mutation that causes them to have black fur. They are more aggressive and territorial than the grey squirrels too, and the result is that the black squirrels will usually run all the other squirrels out of an area.

According to this new research, however, black fur actually results from a genetic mutation. This explains why the black squirrel is somewhat rare, making up for an estimated one in every 10,000 squirrels.

Black squirrels are the same species as grey squirrels, with the only difference being their fur color. The new work builds on research from 2014, which found that the black fur is caused by the grey squirrel having a pigment gene with a missing piece of DNA.

In mythical folklore, the black squirrel symbolism does not mean good luck. Instead, it means solar eclipse according to some legends. Therefore, a black squirrel is the enemy of humanity and needs to be destroyed if mankind wants to enjoy the heat and light of the sun. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to go out and dispatch a black squirrel just because he’s hanging out in your neighborhood.

Black squirrels normally live up to a year, but some have lived up to 10 years. Black squirrels will eat anything they are offered, often feeding on nuts and acorns, any kind of seed, fruit, insects and even bird eggs. Mating occurs from December through January.

WINTER PREDICTION UPDATE

I’m still watching Mother Nature to see what else I can learn from her signs.

I’m still getting mixed messages. I hate to say this, but the majority of signals from nature are that we should prepare for a severe winter. One of the signs is trees, flowers and vegetables. When leaves drop early, autumn and winter will be mild. However, when flowers bloom in autumn, a bad winter is at hand.

Well, the leaves are falling early, but the flowers are blooming late. I have a wild rose bush on the corner of my property, and it has bloomed for the third time this year. Usually, I get one, sometimes two. My neighbor across the street has two large lilac bushes. As everyone knows, lilacs usually bloom around Memorial Day. Well, these two bushes have bloomed for a second time this year. I have never heard of that.

Grey squirrels are also an indicator. I am seeing more and more of them with bushy tails. Another sign of a severe winter.

Again, draw your own conclusion, but I don’t think we are going to get the mild winter repeat from last year.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

What is the New England Patriots logo commonly referred as?

Answer can be found here.

Give Us Your Best Shot! for Thursday, October 7, 2021

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To submit a photo for this section, please visit our contact page or email us at townline@townline.org!

SOARING HIGH: Tina Richard, of Clinton, photographed this immature eagle flying high in the sky.

GUARDING THE FOOD: Pat Clark, of Palermo, captured this Baltimore Oriole standing guard at a suet feeder.

CHECKING THINGS OUT: Jayne Winters, of South China, snapped this deer in her backyard.

I’M JUST CURIOUS: Dart’s escape

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by Debbie Walker

Apple Tree Notch is the home of the Bailey fairy family and many of their friends. Mom and Papa Bailey had noticed that as their fairy children grew older their home became busier.

Their children could in a matter of seconds turn their quiet little home under the apple tree into a very busy, crazy home. Can you just imagine Momma Bailey trying to clean her home when three little children came flying through the door? Some times they were running, sometimes flying, flitting and scurrying between Momma and Papa trying to tell them about their adventures that day.

Well, this day was no different. All three of the Bailey children came rushing through the door and following closely behind was their friend, Dart. He was a very excited young dragon fly. They all began flying and flitting around between the parents and of course Dart was “darting” around, that was how he had gotten his name.

Papa finally stood up from his chair and said, “Everyone stop, there are too many talking at the same time, Momma and I just can’t understand. Dart it sounds as if you are the one with the adventure, so you may tell us. Daisy, Fern and Twig settle down while Momma and I listen”.

It was hard for the excited three to settle down. They were excited remembering how Daisy had escaped the big house behind Apple Tree Notch. The child, Tristin had almost put Daisy in a vase of water as a present to her parents. The escape had been a close call and now this!

Dart began to explain. I was just flying around with some friends. We were playing a game of chase. One of my friends made a quick swoop past the open door of the house. “I missed him and flew right into the house. I saw the people there but they didn’t see me, so I hid behind the curtain.”

“A short time after the house got quiet, I thought everyone had left. So I started trying to wing my way out from behind the curtains. Sometimes I still can’t control my wings as well as I would like to.”

“I heard the mother of the house say to herself, “what is that noise I hear?” I knew she was looking for me. That made my wings flap even harder against the window.” “The woman moved the curtain out of the way, and she caught me in her hand. I was so scared, but I got out and flew, only to land behind another curtain and I knew she was still after me. Papa, Momma, I was so scared. I was afraid my wings would get torn or something worse.”

“The lady was still after me. I couldn’t help flapping my wings and again she found me. You won’t believe what the woman did. She grabbed me and I thought that was it for me. The woman spoke to me. She said, “little dragon fly if you will slow down just a second I will help you out.” The next thing I knew I was on her open hand, and she let me fly out the door! That’s when I almost hit Twig as I was flying away. That woman let me go, just like that and I’m not hurt at all!”

Momma and Papa saw the sparkle of light from the Sprite, the guardian of all the local children. They saw him fly out the door, so they knew everything was alright.

Momma had been fixing dinner while Dart was telling his story. She said “Well Dart with all that flying you must be tired and hungry.” The whole family giggled as they looked at Dart. He had lit on a cushion and fallen fast asleep.

No harm was done. They ate dinner as Dart slept dreaming of his release by the woman. Apple Tree Notch is certainly full of adventures, but for now things were quiet.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy a little kid’s stuff.

Debbie Walker of Lecanto, FL. Contact me DebbieWalker@townline.org with any questions or comments.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Church steeples; Author: Thornton Wilder; Singer: Kay Starr

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George Fox

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Church steeples

The Protestant church steeples still seen in The Town Line’s surrounding communities include the towering beauty at the China Village Baptist Church. Back during the decades of 80 or more years ago, some of these steeples summoned the citizens of the surrounding communities to Sunday morning assemblies to an extent not seen as often today, no matter what the weather was.

This might seem like a big leap here but bear with me for a moment. I was reminded of the required weekly attendance at both church and Sunday school from my parents, for what seemed like untold years to my immature mind, at the East Vassalboro Friends Meeting AND how often we kids heard about Quakerism’s 17th century founder George Fox (1624-1691) after recently reading a quote from him about steeples in his Journal, itself quoted in a critical essay by Sir Victor S. Pritchett (1900-1997).

Pritchett wrote:

“One hesitates, since Freud, to admit to a strong personal feeling for church steeples, and yet who does not respond to the ring and vividness of that phrase which occurs again and again in George Fox’s Journal and which puts the man and his book a key higher than the common chord of living – ‘As I was walking in a close with several Friends, I lifted up my head and espied three steeple house spires and they struck at my life.'”

Both Fox’s Journal and Pritchett’s 1991 Complete Collected Essays, which contains over 1,300 pages of his book reviews, are highly recommended.

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town is a wistful and, at odd moments, sardonic tribute to pre-World War I village life in the fictional Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire, in three acts with the subtitles 1901, Daily Life; 1904, Love and Marriage; and 1913, Death and Eternity.

Whether it’s two housewives, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb, chatting outdoors while snapping stringbeans, the alcoholic church organist Simon Stinson rehearsing the choir on Wednesday night, the young high school graduates George Gibbs and Emily Webb falling in love or the recently departed spirits of a few villagers conversing in a holding pattern at the cemetery while a funeral is occurring during a driving rainstorm, Wilder caught the immediacy of life more than a century ago in this village quite brilliantly.

One quite apt quote from the main character who’s referred to as the Stage Manager – “We like to know the facts about everybody.”

A very good movie version came out in 1940 starring William Holden, Thomas Mitchell, Martha Scott, Faye Bainter, etcs.

Kay Starr

Kay Starr

Jazz singer Kay Starr (1922-2016) recorded a Capitol lp, Movin’ (ST 1254) which contains 12 positively vibrant performances of Great American Songbook classics – On a Slow Boat to China, I Cover the Waterfront, Around the World, Sentimental Journey, Night Train, Indiana, Lazy River, etcs. She had the arrangements of the gifted conductor Van Alexander while the album was produced by Dave Cavanaugh.

And it can be heard on YouTube.

Robert PT Coffin essay Kennebec Crystals continued

Continuing with Robert PT Coffin’s essay Kennebec Crystals, on Maine’s once most important winter industry, the harvesting of ice from the Kennebec River:

“May saw the ice ships arrive and tie up at the docks. The Kennebec crystals came down the runs, slithered across the decks of the four-masters and into the holds. When a number of the old hulls were loaded, which had once breasted the waves on the underside of the world, white under thunderclouds of sail, a tugboat steamed down-river on a neap tide, dragging the old veterans of the Atlantic back to the Atlantic again, below Popham.”

More next week.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: Increasing Diversity In Cancer Clinical Trials

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Researchers are looking for new and better ways to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in cancer research and improve outcomes for minority populations.

(NAPSI)—There’s good news, bad news and better news about combating cancer in America these days.

The good news is there’s been an overall decline in U.S. cancer deaths since 1991.

The bad news is not all patients have benefited equally from advances in prevention, early detection and precision medicine. One study found that around 8.1 percent of cancer patients participate in a clinical trial. Of those, FDA data show that only 4 percent of clinical trial participants are Black and 5 percent are Hispanic.

What’s more, minority groups overall in the U.S. have both the highest death rate and shortest survival rate for most cancers. These inequities in cancer care have been ongoing for decades, due in part to socio-economic barriers, insufficient information about trials and their benefits, as well as other challenges.

The better news is a major funder of cancer research is working to tackle cancer disparities. Stand Up To Cancer® (SU2C), which raises money to accelerate the pace of research to get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now, began formalizing its Health Equity Initiative in 2017. The initiative aims to increase minority representation in cancer clinical trials and ensure new cancer treatments are effective for all.

Improving diversity in cancer clinical trials

Moving forward, SU2C-funded research teams will be required to address issues related to recruitment and retention of patients from minority groups to improve diverse participation in cancer clinical trials.

“As one of the leading funders of cancer research, we believe it is our duty to ensure that minority representation in cancer clinical trials is addressed. Now, more than ever, better understanding of the role of biology in cancer treatment, advances in precision treatment, and development of new technologies demands that we also make significant improvements in diverse clinical trial participation,” explained SU2C CEO Sung Poblete, PhD, RN. “We are confident that this initiative will make a significant and meaningful impact to ensure all communities have equal access to potentially life-saving treatments.”

SU2C is collaborating with a number of industry leaders who are also committed to improving cancer disparities, including Genentech, Exact Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb and Amgen. Funding from these donors supports SU2C’s Health Equity Initiative, including cancer screening and clinical trial awareness efforts as well as research into specific types of cancers that disproportionately impact people of color. Another collaboration with the Black Women’s Health Imperative and Friends of Cancer Research is Project TEACH, which will empower Black women to effectively engage with researchers and clinicians as well as increase participation of Black women in cancer-focused clinical trials. Project TEACH is supported by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

“Bringing a diverse patient population into the clinical trials arena is complex,” said Dr. Edith A. Perez, MD, professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, chief medical officer at Bolt Biotherapeutics, chair of the SU2C Health Equity Committee and vice chair of the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee. “As a part of this effort, Stand Up To Cancer is amplifying the conversation around health equity so that researchers, institutions and cancer research funders join this effort and become more engaged in increasing diversity in cancer clinical trials, similar to Stand Up To Cancer’s successes in normalizing collaboration across cancer research.”

Learn More

For further facts and stats about Stand Up To Cancer, go to www.StandUpToCancer.org.

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS: Be different

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Growing your businessby Dan Beaulieu
Business consultant

There are a series of books out about what is called Blue Ocean Strategies. The premise is that most businesses operate in the same ocean, “the Red Ocean”, but to truly succeed a company has to swim in their own ocean, the Blue Ocean. This is all fancy metaphor talk for being different, being better, finding a way to do things differently. A way that will change everything and wow your customers to the point of not only improving your business, but dramatically changing your market as well.

Some examples of Blue Ocean companies are what Uber did for paid ridership and what BnB did to the hotel industry, what Door Dash did for food take out services and, yes, what Instacart did for grocery shopping.

And, of course, there is the biggest example of Blue Ocean strategy, what Amazon did to the retail business…not only changed everything but literally took it over to the point of outright domination.

Okay, let’s get our head out of the clouds and back to earth. What can you do about your particular industry, and marketplace? What kind of Blue Strategy can you come up for your business?

Now, I don’t claim to have all the magic answers, I don’t know your particular business as well as you do, but I can show you how these companies did it.

It’ simple: they focused on their customers. They used their imagination to take them out of their proverbial box of business as usual.

They followed George Bernard Shaw’s advice as often quoted by Robert Francis Kennedy, “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.”

And they ignored the advice of Charles Holland Duell, the commissioner of the U.S. Patent office who, in 1899, wanted to close the office saying, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

So how about you and your business? “What can you do to dream things that never were and ask why not?”

Here are a few steps to help you along the way:

  • Sit down and think about your business. Put yourself in your customers’ place. If you were your own customer, what would you like from your business?
  • Forget what has come before, what you did before and think of what you can do now, and better yet, what you can do tomorrow.
  • Dream a little, or a lot. Don’t let facts and existing barriers get in the way of your imagination. Just let yourself go wild and when you come up with a new great idea…then walk backwards to figure out how to do it.
  • Take a look of the world around you. Research what similar companies in other parts of the country, and the world, are doing. Learn more about your own industry, network with other owners in other parts of the world and get some ideas and inspiration from them. The nice thing about being a local business is that if you discover a great Blue Ocean idea from someone in your industry in Salem, Oregon, or London, Ontario, there is nothing wrong with taking the idea and bringing it into your local area.
  • The most important thing here is to dare to dream, to find a way to do it, not only differently, but better than anyone in your local marketplace has done it. Create your own Blue Ocean to swim in. And that’s a great way to grow your business.

CRITTER CHATTER: This is time of year to release healthy animals

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Opposum.

by Jayne Winters

This is the time of year many critters are released from the Duck Pond Wildlife Center, although if animals are old enough and sufficiently rehabbed, releases also take place throughout the summer. Chipmunks and squirrels are usually not turned out after mid-October, as their primary natural food sources have dwindled. This year’s fawns are still small and likely unable to survive the first winter on their own, so will be kept for May release. By August, the first to go are the opossums, then the raccoons, skunks, and foxes. To date, Don Cote and his volunteers have released nine of last year’s fawns, over a dozen opossums, six skunks, 13 red foxes, and one gray fox. Several squirrels, skunks, and 16 coons were transferred to another rehabber, the latter of which had been fully inoculated against the parvo virus when they left the Duck Pond Center. Unfortunately, the other rehab facility did lose quite a few raccoons to parvo, but we hope our transfers were protected from this highly contagious disease.

There are still 25-35 Canada geese and ducks on site, nine tiny fawns, the three bobcat kittens I wrote of in August, an opossum which needs vet evaluation to determine if its vision is compromised, and several gray squirrels. I asked Don if he would release the kittens together or separately. He explained they’ll be released individually and in different locations for several reasons: 1) they need to establish their own territories; 2) food resources need to be considered; and 3) bobcats don’t necessarily want or need companionship, even of their siblings; they tend to live solo except during mating season.

baby raccoons

I also wondered if there were special site requirements for different species and if the time of day for release mattered. Don said he looks for nearby water in all areas, whether it’s a marsh, pond, or an active brook or stream. Deer are usually turned out in the morning, foxes in the afternoon, all on empty stomachs so they won’t get sick during travel and will begin to actively seek out food in the wild.

In looking through some of Carleen Cote’s columns, I found one from October 1996: “There are events in everyone’s life that are memorable. We will never forget one release – that of our first fawn. The month of May had arrived and we looked for a site where the fawn would not be harassed nor, hopefully, hunted. We discussed many sites before choosing one, finally realizing there was no way to forever protect it from being hunted. We had given it a second chance at life; it belonged in field and forest to run and frolic. We called the people who owned the property we thought would be a good release site. “Yes,” they said, they would be thrilled to have the fawn released on their land and would watch over it to the best of their ability, notifying us if problems developed.

“Release day arrived. We loaded the deer into a specially constructed transport crate and headed out. A dirt road led to the field where the deer would be set free, but a rainy spring had turned it to mud. Despite using four-wheel drive, the wheels got stuck. The landowner and his son helped Donald slide the crate from the truck and after carrying it on foot, the deer was released into an open field. As we walked up the muddy trail to the truck, I glanced back. There, right behind us, was the deer. It followed us right back to the farm house! The landowners later reported the deer visited them on a daily basis and had become quite fond of Fruit Loops!”

A reader recently asked what type of items she could donate to the Center. The “Wish List” always includes bleach, cleaning supplies, heavy duty garbage bags, towels, dry dog and cat food (no dye), canned dog and cat food (no dye), paper towels, frozen berries (no syrup), birdseed, and even apples (not from recently sprayed trees). Please be advised that leftover, torn or opened bags of pet food cannot be accepted.

The Wildlife Care Center greatly appreciates the continuing assistance from other rehabbers to help while Don and his long-time volunteer, Amy, deal with health issues. We ask that you check these websites to see if there is a rehabber closer to you to help make critter care at Duck Pond more manageable: https://www.mainevetmed.org/wildlife-rehabilitation or https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/living-with-wildlife/orphaned-injured-wildlife/rehabilitation.html.

Donald Cote operates Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center, on Rte. 3, in Vassalboro. It is a nonprofit state permitted rehab facility supported by his own resources & outside donations. Mailing address: 1787 North Belfast Ave., Vassalboro ME 04989; TEL: (207) 445-4326. EMAIL: thewildlifecarecenter@gmail.com.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Photographs are probably wolves in Maine’s north woods

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Trail cameras set up by MWC captured these images. (photos courtesy of John Glowa)

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

This week, I’m going to give up my space to a China resident. In the past we have done articles on wolves in Maine with mixed reactions. Some people believing there are wolves in Maine, and some others saying no.

John Glowa, of China, is a member of the Maine Wolf Coalition, Inc., and has advocated for wolves in the past. The following is a press release from Glowa:

In 1993, a young female wolf was killed by a bear hunter north of Moosehead Lake. In 1996, a second wolf was killed by a trapper east of Bangor. Since then, there have been many sightings of possible wolves in Maine.

In 2019, in response to the failure/refusal of the state and federal governments to assess the status of wolves in the northeast, the Maine Wolf Coalition (MWC) began a search for wolves in Maine. Due to the proximity of wolves in Canada, and the abundant habitat and prey in the northeast U.S., wolves are attempting to recolonize the northeast. Unfortunately, widespread killing of large canids by hunters and trappers in the U.S. and Canada is likely preventing or hindering their natural recovery in Maine.

Trail cameras set up by MWC captured these images. (photos courtesy of John Glowa)

In 2019, MWC documented the first live Eastern wolf in Maine through its scat. In 2021, MWC set out trail cameras to attempt to photograph wolves. Two of the cameras were placed where the wolf scat was found. These two cameras photographed at least two adult animals. A third was placed in another area where we previously found large canid scat which could not be analyzed. This camera photographed a litter of up to seven canid pups.

Here is a link to the video which is a compilation of photos. They show at least two wolf-like adults. They are very different in appearance, possibly owing to the fact that Maine may have both gray and Eastern wolves and hybrids of both. The morphology of these animals shows the wide variation in wolves and wolflike canids. Wolves in Maine may range in size from less than 50 pounds to more than 100 pounds and they may vary in color from white to black and various shades of brown and gray.

We continue to maintain trail cameras and collect canid scat in Maine’s north woods. Given the information we have gathered to date, we would like to see the state and federal governments and universities/colleges conduct similar research to further assess the status of wolves in Maine including whether or not there is a breeding population. Unfortunately, the federal government recently removed federal protection for wolves in Maine and elsewhere, in part due to their unfounded claims that Maine has no wolves. In addition, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife refused to close a relatively small portion of Maine’s woods to coyote trapping to protect possible wolves and the Province of Québec allows wolves to be killed legally to the Maine border.

The Maine Wolf Coalition, Inc. is a non-profit 501c3 Maine corporation dedicated to wolf recovery in Maine through research, education and protection. For more information, contact John Glowa at 207-660-3801 or at jglowa@roadrunner.com.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

What manager led the Boston Red Sox to their first championship in 86 years in 2004?

Answer can be found here.

Give Us Your Best Shot! for Thursday, September 30, 2021

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To submit a photo for this section, please visit our contact page or email us at townline@townline.org!

CHECKING OUT THE SCENERY: Joan Chaffee, of Clinton, photographed these cows checking out her sunflowers.

GRACKLEMANIA: Emily Poulin snapped this photo of three grackles who seem to be having a disagreement at the feeder.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: Dental Sealants Can Cut Kids’ Cavity Risk 80 Percent

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Smile: Sealants may mean kids can avoid getting cavities and their parents can avoid paying for them.

(NAPSI)—Parents can help their children practically eliminate their chance of getting cavities, often at no cost—yet they don’t. Here’s a closer look at this conundrum:

Be Smart About Sealants

Beyond daily brushing and flossing, dental sealants have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of cavities in kids—yet the clear protective coatings, which work by filling the deep grooves where bacteria can accumulate—remain largely underused.

The thin, slippery coating applied to the chewing surfaces of back teeth (molars) makes it difficult for plaque to adhere, which prevents decay from sticking to the pits and grooves of molars. By blocking germs and food, sealants provide protection against tooth decay by nearly 80 percent in molars for two years and they continue to protect against 50 percent of cavities for up to four years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Children without dental sealants are three times more likely to develop cavities,” says Nadia Fugate, DMD, who serves as a Delta Dental of Washington dental consultant. “Sealants are one of the most effective ways to reduce cavities among children 5 to 15 years old.”

Dr. Fugate adds that dental sealants are safe, require no drilling, and are less expensive and easier to apply than fillings. Sealants last five to 10 years and are applied in a simple three-step process performed by the dentist or a dental hygienist:

•Teeth are cleaned with a special toothpaste

•A cleansing liquid is applied gently with a small piece of cotton and rinsed off

•The sealant is “painted” onto the tooth, requiring about a minute to form a protective shield

Sealants and Insurance

Dental sealants are completely covered by most employer-sponsored dental plans, with little or no out-of-pocket expense to parents; for those with individual and family plans, insurers such as Delta Dental offer a free online estimator which calculates any out-of-pocket cost based on the child’s specific benefits and the dentist. In addition, many schools offer a school sealant ­program—ask your school nurse if your child’s school participates.

Learn More

For further information about dental sealants, visit Delta Dental of Washington’s blog at www.DeltaDentalWA.com/blog.