Revisiting Oral Health

As I've been scheduling and preparing to teach oral hygiene classes in honor of National Children's Dental Month, I started thinking about how much I've learned about oral health in the past months and the importance I've come to place on it. When I began my AmeriCorps term of service, I knew one of my main objectives for the year was to provide oral health education. What I was not aware of is how desperately this education and oral health treatment is needed by many communities across the United States. According to the Surgeon General's 2000 Report Oral Health in America dental caries is the'single most common chronic childhood disease—5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever." Oftentimes, we do not think of caries as a'chronic childhood disease." With quality education and effective oral treatment dental caries is almost entirely preventable and also highly treatable. Here at Heartland Health Centers (HHC), we are working to both prevent and treat by educating students and expanding access to oral health services.
As an educator, I have focused on teaching basic and fundamental skills about oral health to the students at Hibbard Elementary School and Albany Park Multicultural Academy (APMA). I spend a substantial part of my lessons teaching children how to brush their teeth, but I also try to help them understand the role of primary/permanent teeth, how nutrition is closely tied to oral health and what to expect when they visit the dentist. These lessons provide foundational knowledge for students when they come to visit our School Based Health Center's (SBHCs) dental clinic so they begin to develop good habits and are less intimidated by visiting the dentist.
         Another significant part of my service is promoting and supporting our SBHC dental clinic in its effort to expand dental care to students at Hibbard and APMA. I send home letters, attend Parent Teacher Organization meetings to increase the visibility of our clinic and attend school events where I set up a booth to talk to parents about our clinic. Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Department of Public Health also fund mobile dental clinics that visit each school to provide dental examinations and cleanings at no-cost to the students. I then reach out to the parents of students who have dental problems to share information about our dental clinic and ensure that students have access to dental care.
         To improve oral health in the community that I serve, I have been teaching, tracking students with oral health problems, and promoting the HHC clinic to increase awareness of the resources available to them in their community. Oral health is an essential part of our overall health and based on the Surgeon General's report there is a great deal of work to be accomplished. Fortunately, with community organizations like HHC placing such emphasis on oral health great strides are being taken to address these issues and make a difference in the communities we serve.

This post was written by Taylor Cox, a Health Promoter with Heartland Health Centers at Hibbard Elementary School.