I was presented the opportunity to volunteer with Colgate at The Greater New York Dental Meeting (GNYDM). Colgate’s Bright Smiles Bright Futures, program gives back to the communities of New York City each year by bringing together 1,300 elementary school children for the most unique children’s dental health care program in the country. For the past four years, the Greater New York Smiles program has supported oral hygiene education and dental screening for New York City’s third and fourth grade public school children. This was an amazing experience and I truly enjoyed interacting with all the children.
Head Start Varnish Program
My classmates and I performed free dental screenings and administered fluoride varnish treatments to preschoolers ages 4-5 years old, at a local head start program.
Service Learning Project
I was part of a team that presented to a class of second grade ESL students at P.S. 166 in Queens. The presentation focused on nutrition and oral health. We created a lesson plan and organized a Tell-Show-Do approach to engage the students.
The oral hygiene instruction consisted of tooth brushing and flossing demonstrations. Nutritional Counseling was conducted through interactive games, allowing the children to distinguish between healthy and cariogenic foods. In addition we provided the students with goody bags, containing all the necessary tools to aid in their home care such as: tooth brushing tracking calendar, floss holders and tooth brush. The experience was very rewarding. It gave us the opportunity to utilize our education while giving back to the community.
Lesson Plan: The link below is a copy of the lesson plan we created.
Provided comprehensive oral hygiene and preventive care to patients of the general public through The New York City College Of Technology Dental hygiene clinic, and patient outreach initiatives.
