Vidalia &8212; The command was a simple one Tuesday morning at Vidalia Lower.

&8220;Open wide,&8221; the dental hygenist said, holding strange-looking devices in her hands.

For most of the first- and second- graders who were fortunate to hear the command, following it proved to be more much more difficult. Squirming in the chair, sometimes gripping the edge until their hands grew red, students from Vidalia Lower faced their fears and had their six-year old molars sealed.

With a Better Health from the Delta grant, the Health Enrichment Network in partnership with Operation Smile has been sealing the teeth of Concordia Parish first- second- and sixth- graders in order to battle the problem of tooth decay in the delta region of Louisiana.

Sealants protect the teeth from food particles that get stuck in the cracks of molars and, if left to decay, will causes cavity &8212; which can lead to worse problems.

Using a simple four-step process, employees from the Medical Center of Family Dentistry in Sicily Island sealed the teeth of about a hundred students.

After a thorough cleaning, each baby molar is prepped with a solution and then coated with another. That thin, white coating is then hardened by an ultraviolet light.

And while there was absolutely no pain involved in the treatment, it was hard to convince the students &8212; some who had never been to a dentist before.

&8220;A lot of these kids have so many oral issues,&8221; spokesman for the program, Amy Karam said Tuesday.

In fact, because many family health plans do not cover dentistry, children&8217;s teeth do not get adequate attention, Karam said. For some, that means multiple oral problem before they reach high school age.

For others, it means surgery that can be very complicated and very expensive.

In rural areas, where many families cannot afford it, the cost is passed on to the government.

In order to begin to address the issue, officials from the Health Enrichment Network decide to attack the problems before they start.

&8220;Everything we do is prevention based,&8221; Karam said. &8220;Seventy-five percent of cavities in children will be in their molar teeth. If we can get those then the chances are these children will not have cavities in high school.&8221;

At about $35 dollars a tooth the program will have spent almost $10,000 to seal the teeth of students across Concordia Parish.

For Karam and other officials, the cost to seal those teeth is cost effective.

&8220;We will save the state a lot of money,&8221; Karam said. &8220;It&8217;s a lot cheaper to do this now than it will be later. A couple of surgeries will cost more than what we have spent so far this year.&8221;