October 25, 2001-Vol33n8: Dental students work to raise the dental "IQ"

Dental Students work to raise the dental "IQ"
Public service programs emphasize importance of maintaining good oral health

By JENNIFER LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Contributor

From special-needs children to senior citizens and rural youth, students in the School of Dental Medicine are educating the community with a slate of year-round, public-service programs that emphasize the crucial importance of maintaining good oral health.

A dental student examines a Special Olympics athlete as part of the dental school's extensive outreach program.

Photo: School of Dental Medicine

With a repertoire of programs that has grown steadily over the years, the dental school has earned a stellar reputation among its community clientele and university peers, with other dental schools looking to UB as an example of successful outreach.

"All of our efforts are geared to bring the message home to everyone in the area that oral health is very important—and is related to systemic health," said Paul Creighton, assistant dean for community affairs and a clinical assistant professor of pediatric and community dentistry in the dental school. "Raising the dental IQ, if you will, really is the answer."

Oral-health education has become a critical issue, not only for Western New York, but for the entire country, with U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher issuing the first-ever "Report on Oral Health" just last year. The report, which links such major illnesses as heart and lung diseases and stroke with poor oral health, stressed that "oral health and general health should not be interpreted as separate." Citing major disparities in the kinds of oral-health care children and adults who are socio-economically disadvantaged receive, Satcher called on "health professionals, individuals and communities to work together to improve health."

With 80 percent of dental problems found in 20 percent of the population, Creighton said getting the word out to Western New York's underserved population has become a major mission of the dental school.

The Comprehensive Oral Health for Disabled Youth (COHDY) program—which services more than 4,000 disabled children and young adults—is one of more than seven community-service programs run through the dental school.

"It's a program that started initially as an access issue—we created this program to treat mentally and physically deficient patients," Creighton said. The self-sustaining, year-round program—participation is mandatory for all dental students—is offered through UB and The Children's Hospital of Buffalo.

As a tandem project, students each year volunteer at the Special Olympics, where they teach athletes good dental-health practices, such as how to brush properly and what foods to eat.

The school's longest-standing program—its sealant project—has been going strong for a decade. Some 50 students visit area schools three days a week to apply the protective coating to youngsters' molars. Students in Niagara County public schools, as well as two schools in Lackawanna that have been identified as being located in pockets of the community where oral health care is lagging, are being treated through a New York State grant.

"The means to the answer" of boosting the public's collective dental IQ, Creighton said, "is to become part of the fabric of the community—to bring home one smile at a time."

But at no time do dental students bring home more smiles than during National Children's Dental Health Month in February. Smile Education Day, usually the third Wednesday of the month, is the school's biggest blitz on the community. Every student—UB's Dental Clinic actually shuts down for the day—is sent into an elementary school to promote good oral health. Students visit more than 30,000 third- and fifth-graders, who, when they take home information to their parents, can more than triple the number of people who benefit from learning better practices for good oral health. The award-winning project is a model for other dental schools, Creighton said, noting that "there's nothing like it in the country."

To further reinforce oral-health education in the classroom, the dental school has been chosen as one of nine sites that will implement an oral-health curriculum geared toward kindergarten through third-grade students. The National Institutes of Health-sponsored curriculum, "Open Wide and Trek Inside," is a computer-based, interactive and bilingual program designed to improve math, science and reading skills while building awareness of oral health. The curriculum will be implemented this year in the Head Start program, with future plans to take it into Buffalo schools.

In addition to its programs with urban school children, dental students also are getting the word out to expectant moms, senior citizens and rural youth.

In Chautauqua County, the Mobile Dental Unit serves some 12,000 children in schools who otherwise wouldn't receive quality oral-health care. Roughly 20 dental students rotate through the program throughout the year, with a dental professional regularly manning the operation. Children whose parents consent can have dental work done on a fully equipped bus that stays at one school for between two to three weeks.

"The mobile dental unit is so successful, we're trying right now to put one into the Buffalo school system," Creighton said.

Dental students also work through the school's Maternal-Infant Program, talking to mothers about managing their newborns' oral health, as well as their own.

And through the Erie County Department of Health's Division of Dentistry and Kaleida Health, students have been working with the community's elderly population, spending time at health and church fairs and malls to educate senior citizens.

Under the leadership of Interim Dean Russell J. Nisengard, UB's dental school remains committed to weaving its way into the fabric of the community, Creighton said.

"The school is where we educate our dental students to get the message out, and then they go out and educate patients all over the map."