UB's 400 Dental Students Are Community Ambassadors Promoting Oral Health, Raising Community's 'Dental IQ'

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Students in the University at Buffalo's School of Dental Medicine are educating the community, from special-needs children to underserved urban and rural schoolchildren to senior citizens, about the importance of maintaining good oral health through a slate of year-round, public-service programs, at least one of which is unique in the U.S.

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

Oral-health education has become a critical issue across the U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher issued the first-ever "Report on Oral Health" in May 2000, warning the nation that periodontal disease increases the risk of developing such major illnesses as heart and lung diseases and stroke. "Oral health and general health should not be interpreted as separate," he stressed. Citing major differences in the oral-health care received by advantaged and disadvantaged groups, he called on health professionals, individuals and communities to work to overcome this disparity.

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. To that end, all of UB's 400 dental students are required to take part in one of several community-service programs run through the dental school. Faculty, students and dental residents also provide care annually to approximately 18,000 patients, many of whom have no insurance, in UB's on-site dental clinics.

The school's largest community effort takes place in February -- National Children's Dental Health Month -- and is centered around Smile Education Day, the third Wednesday of the month. Students visit more than 30,000 third- and fifth-graders in schools throughout Western New York to promote good oral health. "There's nothing like it in the country," Creighton said, noting that the award-winning project has become a model for other dental schools.

The UB dental school has been selected as one of nine sites in the U.S. to 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, bilingual program designed to improve math, science and reading skills as it builds awareness of oral health. Designed to lead up to Smile Education Day, it is being used first in Head Start programs. Plans call for its introduction in Buffalo's public schools in three years.

The Comprehensive Oral Health for Disabled Youth (COHDY) program, which serves more than 4,000 disabled children and young adults, is another example of the school's outreach efforts with special groups.

"It's a program that started initially as an access issue," Creighton said. "We created this program to treat mentally and physically deficient patients, who often can't be cared for in a typical dentist's office." The self-sustaining, year-round program is offered through UB in conjunction with The Children's Hospital of Buffalo. Participation is mandatory for all dental students.

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

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

UB dental students also are working with pregnant women, senior citizens and rural schoolchildren.

The dental school's Mobile Dental Unit serves 12,000 children in schools throughout Chautauqua County who otherwise wouldn't receive quality oral-health care. Dental students rotate through the program throughout the year, assisting the dentist who regularly staffs the clinic.

Through UB's Maternal-Infant Program, students talk to new mothers about managing their newborns' oral health, as well as their own. They also reach the community's elderly population by manning booths at malls and health and church fairs.

"Over the past eight years, we have been planting the seeds to be the resource, to be the 'Mayo Clinic' of oral health in the area," Creighton said. "The school is where we educate our dental students to get the message out. Then they go out and educate patients all over the map."