Ann Arbor, MI — May 3, 2010 — Four University of Michigan School of Dentistry dental hygiene students received national awards for their innovative public health initiatives in two Michigan communities. The awards were presented April 26 by the American Association of Public Health Dentistry during the National Oral Health Conference in St. Louis.

Major Barriers to Care Noted
Fourth-year dental hygiene students Michelle Washburn, Brittany Forga, and Tanzeela Rashid won a First Place Student Merit Award for their work detailing how several factors that affect how often a parent or guardian takes a child to the Washtenaw Children’s Dental Clinic in Ann Arbor for basic and follow-up oral health care. Located in the old Mack School Building, the nonprofit clinic provides preventive and restorative dental care to low-income Washtenaw County children from preschool to 18 years of age who are not covered by private insurance or Medicaid.

Washburn said their survey of nearly 200 adult caregivers who have children in three elementary schools in the Willow Run School District revealed “that both reliable transportation and distance are major barriers parents or guardians face that prevent them from taking their children to the clinic to receive the oral health care they need.”

Forga said parents or guardians “often take two or three buses to travel fifteen or twenty miles from Willow Run to the clinic. Since there is no direct route, bus transfers are necessary, so more time is needed to travel that distance and time becomes an important factor.” However, she said the survey also revealed that caretakers who have private transportation “said they couldn’t afford to take time off to take a child to the dentist, given the state of the economy and the job market.”

In addition to the survey, the three dental hygiene students were also in Willow Run School District classrooms to talk about the importance of oral health care. The three said they were surprised to observe how grateful the third- through fifth-grade students were to receive toothbrushes and toothpaste. “Many of them also had no idea of what basic oral health care involves or why it’s important to them,” Rashid said. “That made me realize how essential it will be for us to educate both children and their caregivers, since oral health knowledge and practices are passed from one generation to the next.”

Oral Health at Juvenile Detention Center
Veronika Stiles received a Second Place Student Merit Award for her seven-week program that evaluated the oral health needs of residents at the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center in Grand Rapids. A registered dental hygienist, Stiles was one of seven who was the first to receive a bachelor’s degree last December after successfully finishing the School of Dentistry’s Degree Completion E-Learning Program. The online curriculum requires each dental hygiene student to work with an organization in his or her community to develop an oral health promotion program.

“High rates of decay were found among the incarcerated,” Stiles said. Much of the decay, she noted, was due to easy access to junk food. Limited access to suitable oral health care among the nearly 60 juveniles being held in detention compounded the problem.

Stiles spent three weeks teaching oral health care to residents and spent four weeks working with administrators, a nutritionist, and meal planners “to create healthy alternatives to decay-promoting snacks” that would improve the oral health of the juveniles being detained as well as those who worked at the facility.

Stiles also compiled a list of dental care providers in Grand Rapids and western Michigan that juveniles could see for follow-up care. “I discovered that one of the constant challenges the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center faces is locating dentists who will treat juveniles after they have been released,” she said. Most of the juvenile detention residents have only Medicaid dental coverage, but few oral health care providers in the Grand Rapids area accept those patients. “One of my goals was to develop a list of dental care providers who accept state sponsored insurance plans in the area so residents and their parents had the names and office addresses of those providers,” she added.

“I’m pleased with what’s been achieved,” Stiles said. “I wanted to create a program that could help immediately and also be sustainable longer term. Working together, we have been able to offer healthy alternatives to decay promoting snacks at least one day per week and provide juveniles and their parents with a list of oral health providers they can contact if they wish to seek care after they have been released.”

Dental Hygiene Students Recognized for Leadership Roles

Three University of Michigan School of Dentistry dental hygiene students have been honored for their leadership as student members of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA).

Third-year dental hygiene student Kathryn Brown and Allison Restauri, a student in the Degree Completion E-Learning Program, will participate in the American Dental Hygienists’ Association’s annual session in Las Vegas in June. The two were selected for an essay each wrote about qualities a student should possess to be a district student delegate. Brown, chosen to be a student delegate, and Restauri, selected as an alternate student delegate, will represent students in 35 dental hygiene programs in District Five which includes Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

The two also attended the District Five conference in Indianapolis in March in preparation for the annual ADHA session in June. Brown and Restauri met ADHA delegates and trustees to learn more about proposed new or revised policies and bylaws.

Fourth-year dental hygiene student Amy Parks, U-M SADHA vice president, was selected by the University’s Office of Student Leadership and Activities as an Outstanding Student Leader at U-M for 2010. She organized and directed a project that involved 87 of her dental hygiene classmates who made oral health care bags for patients at the Rainbow Rehabilitation Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Parks launched the project after her sister, Patty, was involved in an automobile accident, sustained brain and spinal cord injuries, and needed help maintaining her oral hygiene. Click here for full story.

“We are so proud of each of these students for taking on these leadership roles, said Professor Wendy Kerschbaum, director of the dental hygiene program. “They represent all the students in our program and exemplify ‘leaders and best’.”

Contact: Sharon Grayden, Communications Director (734) 615-2600, or Jerry Mastey, Editor (734) 615-1971   dentistry.communications@umich.edu