Public and Professional Education

Good Health Starts Here Posters

These colorful, engaging posters are intended for caregivers of children up to age six. They feature statements about diet, nutrition, oral hygiene, dental visits, and fluoride for children's oral health. Only $1 each and they make a great giveaway item. Visit the Online Store and receive free shipping! Or call (800) 544-2174.

Helping You Smile! CD for Parents and Children

As part of Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children's partnership with Ultradent Products and The Learning Concept, we continue to offer a wonderful interactive CD called Helping You Smile! to AAPD members. Helping You Smile! is designed to educate and provide dental health information for children by using animations, fun games, and interactive learning activities. A parent section also includes information to help every adult with their own smile. This fun interactive CD provides a high value for you and your practice at the low cost of $2.99 per CD plus shipping for a set of 100 CDs ($9.95 if purchased separately). And best of all, Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children receives a donation for each CD you purchase.

Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children has worked closely with the developers of this CD to create a learning tool that will educate children and help our members promote their services. We have reviewed the material in the Children's section to ensure scientific accuracy. We believe that you will find Helping You Smile! a great addition to your practice. Helping You Smile! has many possible uses:

As a feature in your "New Patient Kits"
As a "Good Check-up" hand-out to your patients
As an educational tool for children to calm their "first visit" worries
To help parents understand how and why their children's teeth change and develop
To promote your practice at local schools or fairs, or through existing patients as a pass-out to their friends.

Each sleeve can be personalized so your patients, or potential patients, will know that Helping You Smile! comes from your office.

Please call The Learning Concept at (800) 931-5965 (operators are available 24/7) or click here to view a demo and place your order.

Spring by Dannon's Grins and Games

With the increased consumer usage of bottled water, it is critical to educate families about the different ways to maintain healthy teeth, particularly regarding fluoridated water. Spring! Fluoride to Go is a contributor to that educational process.

As part of its continued partnership with Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children, Dannon provided a newly updated Grins and Games activity book. It has puzzles and games that also help educate families on oral health and serve as a reminder to kids about the fun and importance of caring for their teeth.

The New Parent Kit

Henry Schein, Inc. has underwritten a New Parent Kit to be distributed in four test hospitals in 2007-2008. New mothers will receive the kit before being discharged from the hospital. The pilot seeks to determine if parental awareness of oral health care for themselves and their infant results in better actual care. The kit contains items for adult and infant oral care, along with messaging to underscore the link between oral and systemic health for moms and their kids.

The Dental Home Brochure

Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children has collaborated with the Dental Trade Alliance Foundation and the American Dental Association to create The Dental Home: It's Never Too Early to Start, which was distributed to almost 100,000 general and pediatric dentists in the United States and is now available for sale.

The Dental Home is the ongoing relationship between the dentist, who is the primary dental dare provider, and the patient. It includes comprehensive oral health care, beginning no later than Age One.

Establishing A Dental Home: Using the AAPD's Caries-Risk Assessment Tool (CAT) as a First Step

With the support of Listerine® Agent Cool Blue™ Plaque-Detecting Rinse Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children mailed the AAPD's Caries Risk Assessment Tool (CAT), along with an explanation of Early Childhood Caries, to all ADA-member general dentists and AAPD members in the United States. CAT provides a means of classifying caries risk at a point in time and, therefore, should be applied periodically to assess changes in an individual's risk status. CAT can be used by both dental and non-dental personnel.

Non-dental health care providers should refer all children, especially those at moderate or high risk, to a dentist for oral health care. This helps establish the Dental Home, which is the ongoing relationship between the dentist and the patient, inclusive of all aspects of oral health care delivered in a comprehensive, continuously accessible, coordinated, and family-centered way. Establishment of a Dental Home begins no later than 12 months of age and includes referral to dental specialists when appropriate.

AAPD Core Curriculum Reading List.

This CD, listed as a resource by the US Department of Health & Human Services, has been developed by the AAPD Council on Postdoctoral Education and is sponsored by Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children. It costs $75 ($100 for non-AAPD members) and has 160 articles in their entirety covering sedation, diagnosis and treatment planning, prevention, trauma, special needs, growth and development, restorative dentistry, pulp therapy, and behavior management. For further information, click here and browse for AAPDF Reading List or call (800) 544-2174.

8 Hours of Free CE in Glass Ionomers.

Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children and GC America have partnered on a web-based series of continuing education courses in the science and use of glass ionomers, adhesives and composites. No mail-in or waiting for CE credits. Just visit www.gcamerica.com at your convenience and print the CE receipt upon completion. It's easy and free for AAPD members.

Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children and Oral-B Checkup on Children's Oral Health Study

As part of the Good Health Starts Here campaign, Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children and Oral-B Laboratories have conducted a consumer phone survey among mothers and/or primary caretakers to evaluate the awareness, attitudes, perceptions and behaviors related to oral health and oral care of children up to 12 years of age. Questions covered such topics as personal hygiene, professional dental care, snacking and nutrition habits, and oral care concerns, information and knowledge. Responses indicate that on average mothers/primary caretakers are knowledgeable about children's oral health and are carrying out the appropriate care practices on their own children. However, 70 percent of those surveyed are taking children to the dentist two years after the age recommended by pediatric dentists. On average, children first visit a dentist at age three although dental experts recommend that initial visits occur between the ages of six months and one year, or when the first tooth appears.

Click here to see a complete survey results report.

Awesome Smiles: Integrating Oral Health in Adolescent Health & Positive Youth Development

Awesome Smiles, a five year $500,000 grant-funded project, addressed the problems of adolescent oral health inattention and lack of integration within the dental and public health communities by engaging the dental community and partnering with other provider groups. Problems addressed include the lack of (1) information on adolescent oral health; (2) organizational infrastructure and programming within and between dental organizations; and (3) inter-professional activity, public awareness, and policymaker action on adolescent oral health.

Awesome Smiles Final Report
Awesome Smiles Report Abstract