DHE
Julene Newland-Pyfer Dental Health Education Chair
Promoting dental health education in the community is one of the easiest ways for an Alliance member to become involved. Dental Health Education is also one of the primary missions of the Alliance at the local, state and national levels. Members in Washington promote dental health through many projects in their communities, such as displays at health fairs, Give Kids a Smile Day and Senior Smiles programs. Many donate toothbrushes to social service agencies, homeless shelters, food banks, the Ronald McDonald House and dental clinics. Others perform dental health puppet shows and visit schools to present dental-related programs. The AWSDA makes toothbrushes available to its active members for donation. The best part is that projects like these can be done with a group of Alliance members or independently. Projects can be ongoing or they can take place in a day.
At the state level, the AWSDA has a long tradition of conducting dental health projects that benefit individuals throughout the state. For over 20 years, the Alliance has sponsored an annual bookmark contest with Camp Fire and Girl Scouts. The 40,000 bookmarks created from the winning designs are distributed to schools, libraries, shelters and health fairs. They are also given to state legislators and other elected officials on Dental Action Day in Olympia.
In 2008, the AWSDA began an exciting, new project to benefit Childhaven, an early intervention and treatment program for abused and neglected children in Seattle. The Alliance Dental Health Committee assembled 250 packets containing toothbrushes, paste, floss and written materials. Childhaven caseworkers then took the packets into clients’ homes during regularly scheduled home visits where they discussed good oral health care, nutrition and the need to visit a dentist regularly. Follow-up packets will be distributed in the spring of 2009. The Alliance also furnished Childhaven’s new dental room with dental health books and DVD’s, a rocking chair, a toy dental unit and many other supplies. Based upon the success of the Childhaven project, the dental health chair and committee have created a model that will enable members to take the project to other, similar facilities and programs in communities throughout Washington.
Check out the Alliance of the ADA website for many ideas on dental health education: WWW.AllianceADA.org