Dental health gets a good 'rap'

he Eastman Dental Center's Community Dentistry Outreach Program is enhancing its successful school-based oral health outreach program through "Rap/Jingle-Rhyme for Oral Health."

The classroom education project, directed by Darlene Riggins White, clinical instructor in the Department of Dentistry and education development coordinator for the program, brings dental health education into elementary school classrooms in the Rochester School District.

"Our goal is to find innovative techniques to use to help eliminate the disparity of dental health in our community," says White.

Funded through $5,000 from the American Dental Association FoundationSamuel D. Harris Grant, the program initiative also received support from the Eastman dental programs and Rochester school district's department of health and physical education.

A team of Eastman dentists and dental hygienists collaborated to develop a skill-based dental curriculum modeled after the district's "Action for Health" curriculum, currently in use. For several weeks this spring, 18 dental hygienists and three dentists from the Eastman Dental Center, Strong Memorial Hospital, and Highland Hospital presented oral health lessons to more than 2,500 elementary students.

"The support and commitment of dental professionals, working together with common goals, will help us achieve the healthiest, dental community by 2010," says White.

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