ADA News

Tampa, Fla.—A Tampa-area nonprofit organization has not only marked the milestone of reaching its 2 millionth child with health and injury prevention education, including dental education, it has also been a catalyst in improving the oral health of local citizens.

Education milestone: Veronica Lopez, the 2 millionth student to receive health education from MORE HEALTH Inc., participates in a hands-on dental health lesson from instructor Kathy Head in May at Muller Elementary Magnet School in Hillsborough County, Fla.

For two decades, MORE HEALTH Inc. has taught health and safety lessons to reach schoolchildren in grades K-12 in the public and private schools in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. The lessons have been provided at no cost to the schools through funding from local hospitals, corporations, foundations and grants.

The organization, which was born from a Junior League project, offers 24 different classroom presentations—45-minute interactive sessions focusing on topics such as dental health, bicycle and pedestrian safety, firearm safety, nutrition and fitness, trauma, heart health and skin cancer prevention.

Yet, its involvement in oral health education has expanded beyond local classrooms. In 2009, the organization received a "Closing the Gap" grant from the Florida Department of Health Office of Minority Health. The grant enabled MORE HEALTH to provide oral health education to 19,000 children, increase the oral health literacy of children and parents, and establish a local oral health coalition. It also successfully advocated in a community water fluoridation campaign and increased access to dental care for children by coordinating dental screening and treatment events.

The Hillsborough County Oral Health Coalition, a community coalition of private dentists, school districts, colleges, public health departments, federally qualified health centers, faith-based organizations and other interested stakeholders—nearly 50 individuals and groups in all—are working together "to have one voice, one clear message and bring awareness through a grassroots effort about the importance of oral health as it relates to overall health," said Karen Pesce, R.N., MORE HEALTH executive director.

"Hillsborough County has a fragmented system of dental care services for the uninsured and the underinsured. Through this grant, the coalition will continue to assess the needs of the community and also identify all the resources, programs and organizations providing dental care services so we can build a coordinated referral system that can be used to refer students and families in need of services."

Ms. Pesce

The grant project has also enabled the coalition to launch a campaign to bring community water fluoridation to Plant City, the only municipality in the county without a fluoridated community water supply. After the coalition conducted an education campaign for city officials, Plant City commissioners conducted a cost analysis and determined that the city could not afford to finance an equipment purchase, but agreed to authorize fluoridation if grant funding could be obtained. The coalition is currently working with the city manager to identify and secure local and state funds for fluoridation equipment and installation.

MORE HEALTH also implemented an education campaign in Hillsborough County to increase the oral health literacy of local families. Its instructors conducted 40-minute interactive lessons for grades K-2 in 90 schools that have 51 percent or more minority population—reaching some 19,000 students. Lessons centered on how and why to practice good oral health care habits, eat nutritious foods, and decrease consumption of sugary foods and beverages. More than 250 children were screened and 40 who had dental health problems received free treatment. The children also received educational materials, toothbrushes and toothpaste, since many served by the program don’t have access to dental care or even basic dental health supplies in their homes.

The organization also conducted a train-the-trainer workshop to help improve the oral health literacy of adults in the community.

"All of these activities represent a coordinated effort to help combat the No. 1 chronic disease in children, and the single most common reason why they miss school," Ms. Pesce said. "Any community can have this kind of success in providing education, prevention and increased access to care. We've learned a lot in 20 years and believe we have a replicable, affordable model."

Dr. Terry Buckenheimer

Coalition member Dr. Terry Buckenheimer, a general dentist in Tampa, is thrilled that "it's all coming together. It's exciting to see how everyone can work together to bring more visibility to the problem and more solutions to help solve it at the grassroots level. Dental caries is such a preventable disease, and we are learning from experience that we can tear down barriers and educate kids so they can take care of their teeth."

Dr. Buckenheimer, chair of the ADA Council on Membership, says MORE HEALTH's oral health initiatives were purposely designed to stretch across advocacy, education, access and public health to make the most impact at the community level.

"It's a common-sense approach to increasing access to care," he said. "If we all pitch in together, we can solve some of these issues."

Visit the MORE HEALTH website for details on its programs and initiatives: www.morehealthinc.org.