Oral Health ‘Circle Time!’
The Child Care Health Project at the SF Department of Public Health teamed up with the UCSF School of Dentistry and UCSF School of Nursing April 25th and May 2nd to screen 120 children at Parkside’s Pre-School and Kindergarten in San Francisco, CA. This school attracts a high Asian, mostly Cantonese and Mandarin speaking, population. The Asian population in San Francisco has consistently shown to have an increased rate of early childhood caries. With the generous donation of dental supplies provided by Henry Schein, we were able to screen our target population of children most in need. We found a high rate of decay, with one third of the children screened having cavities and requiring follow-up care with a dentist. Additionally, with the donated dental supplies, including masks and gloves, we were able to apply fluoride varnish to 83% of the children, a vital component in reversing early caries and preventing future decay.
Thank you, Henry Schein!
With Henry Schein’s donations of bags, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss, we made goody bags for each child to take home. Not only do goody bags enhance the children’s dental screening experience, but they are filled with the necessary tools for parents to immediately begin improving their child’s oral health at home. Caries are completely preventable and no child should ever have to experience this pain and suffering. Thank you Henry Schein for helping us get one step closer to eliminating early childhood caries in our San Francisco child care centers!
Picking out her Henry Schein mouth mirror!
A little boy checks out the fluoride varnish.
On April 13 2013, NWFS hosted a dental screening clinic at Eastham Community Center in Oregon City, Oregon. With the use of OHSU Dental Students and CCC Dental Assisting students we were able to provide dental screenings to over 25 low-income adults in Clackamas County. Thanks to the help of Henry Schein donated supplies, we have been able to serve over 200 people with dental services since September 2012!
In April 2013, 8 pharmacy students and 3 professors from the University of Louisiana at Monroe teamed up with Southeastern Medical International to deliver healthcare screenings and medication to the people of the Dominican Republic.
We stayed in Puerto Plata with another amazing organization, Until They Know. Over the course of the week, we set up free clinics and made house calls to many patients in the surrounding villages.
Each medical team consisted of a doctor, a pharmacy professor, two pharmacy students, and a translator. We diagnosed and dispensed medications for a wide variety of ailments, from mild to life-threatening, conducted blood pressure and glucose screenings, and provided de-worming, vitamin supplements, dietary advice, lifestyle recommendations, and taught physical therapy exercises to whomever we could.
Almost every person we saw was in need of some type of medical intervention, which only emphasizes how needed medical mission work is. Thank you very much to the generous people at the Henry Schein Cares Foundation for helping us make this trip a reality and helping improve the quality of life of the people of the Dominican Republic.
SMILE FOR LIFE PROGRAM
An Oral Health Improvement Project of Cornerstone Care
Now four years into the project, Smile for Life continues to provide exceptional school based oral health education programs to Head Start children in Greene, Washington and Fayette Counties in southwestern, PA. The program also serves elementary schools in Greene and Washington County providing students with a hand-on learning experience.
The Smile for Life program provides more than 4,000 children per year with new toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and oral health education. Their parents receive information about CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) and Medicaid. Last year, we began following up the school-based programming with mobile dental services. We have expanded the mobile dental program to include all Head Start programs in Greene, Washington and Fayette Counties as well as all five school districts in Greene County, PA.
Thanks to the generosity of the Henry Schein Cares Foundation, each child receives a bag containing the toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss from the Oral Hygiene Children’s Kits provided by the foundation.
Window to the Body is a nonprofit seeking to provide basic dental hygiene tools, education and treatment to people of all ages without access to dental care. We partnered with United with the Same Love to travel to Tegucigalpa and Roatan, Honduras to perform dental screenings and clinics where we did treatment.
In Tegucigalpa, we saw children that were at the orphanage Casa De Esperanza. We did screenings on 23 children to see who needed what work on their teeth. We used the materials that were donated by Henry Schein Cares in the Oral Screening and Prevention kits. Over the next two days, they were brought to us at the clinic we were working at so that we could fill cavities, put on crowns and pull some teeth.
We visited the City Dump and spread the word that we were going to have a Dental Clinic at the school close by. There was also a group of eye doctors in the same location so people who came were able to get their teeth and their eyes checked out. We worked at this location for half of a day and saw about 20 adults for whom we did cleanings and pulled teeth. United with the Same Love stayed at this location, and our group went to the Baxter Institute for the remainder of the day and the following day.
The Dental Clinic at the Baxter Institute let us use all of their equipment and instruments. We were able to do restorative work on the children from Casa de Esperanza and on children who went to the school by the City Dump. In that day and a half, we saw about 35 children. Because we had the clinic available with water, air and suction, we were able to save several teeth that would have otherwise been pulled.
We traveled to Roatan to work at the Majken Broby Children’s Home. We saw about 20 children. We did oral hygiene education, cleanings and treatment on the kids who needed it. A group of us went to the local hospital to donate our extra supplied and to give out goodie bags with a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss.
Our trip was a success! We were able to help several people who otherwise don’t get to see a dentist. We are thankful for Henry Schein Cares’ donation that helped us to be able to serve.
