"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
-Mother Theresa
Throughout my two years of dental hygiene school I have had many experiences in community outreach that have increased my awareness of the need for health promotion and disease prevention. These experiences have also increased my awareness of diverse populations and the different cultures and backgrounds of each of the groups that I served.
One of the community outreach opportunities that I was able to participate in was the dental hygiene clinic at San Marcos. This experience taught me a great deal about the importance of community outreach and increased my pediatric patient care abilities. Click here for my reflection of my San Marcos experience.
Through the First Things First program, I was able to visit a day care center, a preschool, and a WIC center to apply fluoride varnish on children. During each of these visits we applied varnish and provided oral hygiene instruction and also taught the children about foods that are health for their teeth. This was an eye opening experience as I saw many children with untreated caries and many children who did not know anything about oral hygiene. At the WIC center we were able to interact with the children's parents. We educated them on the importance of taking care of their children's primary dentition. It was very rewarding to be able to educate these children and adults.
Another community outreach event that I was able to participate in 2012 and 2013 was the Give Kids a Smile Day at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health. During this event underprivileged children were able to come and receive free dental and dental hygiene services at the dental school. It was a great experience seeing everyone work together to treat so many underserved children and to make a difference in their health.
Another community project that I was involved in the Taft Elementary community project. You can read more about it HERE.
My dental hygiene team created and planned a community project where we visited the Mesa Community College Early Childhood Care Center. We prepared nutritional pre tests for the children to see what they already new about foods that are good and bad for their teeth. When we did our first visit to the care center, we first read them a book that taught the children about foods that are good are bad for their teeth. After that we gave them all their own toothbrush and had them brush their teeth for 2 minutes. After they brushed their teeth we had permission to disclose a few of the children's teeth with a blue dye. We did visual plaque exams on the others that did not have permission from their parents to disclose. Then we recorded O'Leary's plaque scores for each of the children. After recording the scores we showed them the correct way to brush their teeth and floss. We came back two weeks later to finish the project. This time we gave the children the same nutrition test that we gave them at the first visit to see if they remembered what we taught them and to see if their scores improved. Then we did another activity to teach them about oral health nutrition. We then had them brush their teeth for two minutes and then disclosed them. We recorded their scores and taught them oral hygiene instruction a second time. It felt great to teach these young children about the importance of oral hygiene and nutrition. I think that they learned a lot from the experience. We also gave them a goody bag that included a toothbrush, floss, Xylitol candy, teeth stickers, a two minute timer, and teeth holders for when they lose teeth. This helped them get excited about their oral health. This helped me to realize all the work and planning that goes into community projects and the rewards that come from serving in the community.
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