Dental Hygiene Education at Summer Program in Richmond

Over a three-week span this summer, we had the opportunity to be involved with the Summer Academic Club held at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Richmond. Our goal was to provide engaging and meaningful education to the 30 students involved regarding their oral health. Each week, we visited the kids for an evening session.  During the first week, we provided an overview on the importance of oral hygiene and its relationship to overall health. We discussed the impact nutrition plays on oral health and demonstrated our key points with a "SIP SMART" board depicting sugar levels in common drinks and what happens to a boiled egg when left in coke overnight, telling the students the eggshell is similar to our tooth surface. The second week we engaged the middle and high school students in an hour long conversation discussing the importance of fluoride, pH and its levels in the mouth, acid foods, systemic diseases related to oral health, dentition eruption and purpose and much more. The third and final week, we brought disclosing tablets and taught the kids what having "pink" on their teeth means and discussed the roles of our teeth and basic nutrition for the Pre-K through elementary students. The students and chaperones were given oral hygiene bags with toothbrushes and toothpaste from the Virginia Dental Association and checklists for them to be able to put into practice the topics we discussed over the course of our three sessions. We were so grateful to be a part of this experience and look forward to passing our resources on to the next class to continue this opportunity to educate these children in the Richmond community.