Our organization mission is built on four principles:
Community Dental services
Oral Health Research
Oral health Education
Advocacy Efforts.
These activities help us to promote the importance of oral health among vulnerable communities.
Dental Services:
Our aim is to deliver "Oral Health care for All". We offer educational programs to school children, pregnant women, elderly and disabled individuals. we collaborate with educational institutions, non-profit organizations and oral health research institutes to make our dream come true by providing oral health for all.
More than 75% of America is designated as rural areas with sparse populations. Contrary to the sparse population, rural Americans have poor oral health due to difficulties in accessing oral health services and its unique sociodemographic factors.
Of all demographic groups, the children are prone to have oral health disparities. The lowered dental utilization rate among children and barriers in accessing oral health services are contributing factors for higher disparities among the children of low socioeconomic communities.
The Non-Hispanic black children are found to have a rate of untreated dental caries twice than other communities. The barriers in accessing the dental services:
1) Lowered dental provider- population ratio
2) Lack of Transportation services and child care services.
3) Lack of Affordable community dental programs
4) Cultural barriers and Health Beliefs.
5) Low socio-economic status.
Our organization utilizes mobile dental services of the office of oral health at MA dep of Public Health. The team included dental hygienists and assistants, dental therapists and community health worker to deliver preventive services. We send out a survey to families to conduct an oral health assessment in their communities. Based on our analysis, our team delivers preventive services such as fluoride varnish and dental sealants to the school children.
Our school-based programs in Ashland, MA delivered our services to more than 400 children in the public schools. Our team delivered oral screenings, preventive services, and oral health education. Then we refer them to local dentists to have their routine oral health services. Our organization focus on training allied health professionals such as community health worker to deliver preventive services and oral health education to reduce the high needs of low-income communities.
Our school-based outreach program in Framingham involves the community health worker to teach the importance of following the oral hygiene standards. We collaborate with schools to educate the advantages of pre-emptive measures for reducing the prevalence rate of fissure caries which are commonly seen in children of ages 5-12 years.
Fluoride-Varnish Programs:
The impact of fluoride varnish program has been an ongoing discussion among the dentists, policy-makers.
The privatization of the oral health system in the United States minimizes the implementation of the community fluoride varnish programs which is a major cause for caries in children of low-income communities.
Our organization collaborates with the public schools of MA to improve the utilization rate of the Flouride Varnish Programs. A survey questionnaire to evaluate the needs of fluoride varnishes will be sent to families of the elementary school children. Our dentist or dental hygienists will deliver the fluoride varnish along with the oral prophylaxis. Then a random sampling method will be followed to select the sample and to evaluate the effectiveness of the fluoride varnish program.
By the year 2020, our target is to cover more than one-thousand elementary school children and evaluate the impact of the program.
Dental-Sealants Programs:
Community-water Fluoridation Programs: The Fluoride has been proven to reduce the caries rate. Despite the availability of other fluoride-containing products, the community water fluoridation is a cost-effective method of delivering fluoride to all community members. Community water Fluoridation prevents tooth decay by about 25% in the lifetime of adults and children. It helps to rebuild and strengthen the tooth surface and improve the accessibility of fluoride in rural communities.
Community Water Fluoridation is a public health intervention to increase the proportion of community members receiving fluoride optimum level of about 0.7-1 ppm to reduce the incidence of caries. The community water fluoridation technique was first started in 1945 and has covered more than 75% of the communities in America which has been found to have a dramatic influence in reducing the caries rate and hence considered as one of the significant public health intervention. Community water fluoridation is an effective method to deliver fluoride for community members regardless of ethnicity, race, age, and socio-economic status. Our organization will take necessary advocacy measures for delivering fluoride to more than 80% of the population in every community as our data reveals that more than about 100 million people were unable to access the fluoride therapies.
We will partner with non-profit organizations, schools, and community centers in MA and RI to work on implementing the water fluoridation techniques in their offices. Our team members will conduct training sessions to staff members to educate them of the benefits of implementing the fluoridation programs. The frequent availability of fluorides will reduce the demineralization of enamel and improve the remineralization of the enamel. Our staff members will work with advocates of oral health, community members of non-fluoridated communities to create awareness of the benefits of community fluoridation programs. Then we will help them to implement the program with appropriate infrastructure and facilities.
Oral Health Education:
We educate the communities of the value of maintaining good oral health and train the dental professionals and non-dental professionals in educating the communities.
Dental Therapist Model: Our organization trains allied dental professionals -dental technicians, dental assistants, and hygienists to deliver oral health awareness campaigns. We travel to non-profit organizations, schools, town halls to educate them of the importance of utilizing preventive services to maintain better oral health. Our organization plans to deliver our awareness campaigns for more than one millions of community members.
Peer Specialist Model: Our organization plans to implement a peer specialist model to narrate their personal dental experiences to other community members. The narration of their own personal experiences and their struggles in utilizing the dental services will be useful to reduce dental phobia and dental anxiety disorders. It will also be useful to understand the barriers in accessing the oral health services in rural areas and we plan to implement the program in the Town of Natick in 2020.
Social Media Campaigns: Our organization utilizes several social media platforms to promote the importance of having good oral health. We regularly tweet community members of the recent dental innovations and amendments in oral health policies to reduce oral health disparities. Our organization posts videos and pictures of the current and former smoker to educate its relationship with periodontal status and also to encourage the cessation of smoking and other tobacco products. We spread information about our organization and also about our oral screening campaigns, and health fairs in all social media.
Tele-dentistry: Our organization implements teledentistry to improve the accessibility rate of oral health programs among the low socio-economic communities. we use telecommunications and information technology to provide easier, reliable, and cost-efficient oral health services to communities. Our team members will follow up with the community members to inquire about their experiences of recent dental visits and to collect the data of the quality of services provided to them with our satisfaction surveys. The model would be useful to enhance the interaction between the provider and patients and also would improve the dental services.
Oral Health Research: We conduct research to improve the quality of oral health services and also to improve the utilization of dental technologies in vulnerable communities. Our current project is designing an oral diagnostic tool using a biosensor in the toothbrushes which would be used for screening purposes to screen and diagnose periodontal diseases in rheumatoid arthritis patients. The concentration of biomarkers which are produced as a result of chronic inflammation will be analyzed to detect the severity of diseases. The tool would be useful to screen diseases in clinical and community settings and will detect both periodontal diseases and rheumatoid arthritis.
Advocacy Efforts: Advocacy for oral health services is one of our goals. we work with community leaders, legislators, decision-makers to promote the oral health policies. Our organization not only works to deliver oral health services but also endeavor to modify the health beliefs of community members. Our advocacy efforts at the individual, state and federal level would bring changes in the oral health policies and hence will create an impact in the oral health status of the community. With our advocacy campaigns, we speak on behalf of children, adults, and the elderly population to communicate their voices to policymakers and government officials to fulfill the oral health needs of community members.
Federal Level Advocacy: Our organization will build a coalition with federal agencies, and lobbies with Congress to create oral health awareness among our community members. Our organization focus on prioritizing the accessibility of oral health services to vulnerable communities. we work with federal agencies to increase the dental provider to patient ratio which is the greatest public health concern and to improve the accessibility rate of the oral health services.
State Level Advocacy: We work with the agencies of state government, schools, and non-profit organization to implement policies for imposing a restriction on selling cigarettes and tobacco-related products to community members. We work with school officials to implement policies for banning the sale of tobacco products to middle and high school students. Our organization work for implementing the "No Smoking Policy" within ten kilometers of the school area.
Community Level Advocacy: Our community advocacy efforts are organizing oral health screening programs and campaigns to create oral health awareness among vulnerable communities. Our community advocacy is based on the principle of collaboration and partnerships as the participation of stakeholders will improve the community engagement activities to create awareness about oral health. Our organization will organize community meetings, in-person meetings and focus group discussions to educate community members.
We organized "A Call for Action" event in the town of Framingham, MA to work with us in reducing the oral health disparities in their community. We make them involve in our event with our self-explanatory resources and materials to maintain better oral health. Our senior-level oral health advocate provided an educational and emotional speech of the need for utilizing preventive services to maintain better oral health.