1. Service Learning Project –

Cambria School of Excellence – April 2018

This was an excellent opportunity to go into the community and present oral health education while gaining valuable community service experience. The primary goal of the project was to conceptualize, plan, implement and evaluate an oral health education program. We taught the students proper brushing technique and spoke to them about the development of oral diseases such as caries. We touched on the role nutrition plays in the prevention of dental caries. I found this experience to be rewarding because it gave me an opportunity to deliver the message of the importance of oral health to a group of students at a point in their lives when they are very impressionable. I would like to think the information we presented may play a small role in helping those students think differently about oral health. The students were very much open to a lot of the ideas we presented which in turn made the project that much more fullfilling.

I would recommend this experience of community outreach to anyone who has the opportunity to take part in it due to the hands on interactive nature of it. It’s great to be able to go into the community and bring a message that can make such a big impact in so many lives.

2. GKSA: Ronald Edmunds Learning Center – February 2018

This was another great opportunity to take part in a community oral health program. The objective was to provide oral health screenings for children in grades 6-8. We were given the opportunity to engage in the screening of oral conditions such caries as well as providing fluoride varnish application to some of the children.

3.  Head Start community outreach – April 2018

This was a program with the goals of reinforcing public health knowledge learned in class to further expand on the roles of hygienist as public health educators as it relates to nutrition and the prevention of oral diseases.  We visited ,as a class, a headstart center where we provided  oral health education to pre-school aged children. I found this to be a great learning experience due to the nuances of communicating with such young children. The information had to be presented in such a way that they would absorbs it. We brought stuff animals and colorful props that were child friendly that made the kids receptive to the information.