The goal of our community outreach project is to reduce the number of caries experienced by school age children through short, interactive lessons and engaging activities. In our needs analysis, we researched scholarly articles and gathered data from state and government websites which indicated a need for improved oral health and caries reduction in school-aged children. In our assessment, it was found that children of lower socioeconomic status and non-whites suffered greater oral diseases (7).
For our community outreach project, our main priority is to help reduce the caries experience in children and to reach those at highest risk. In order to accomplish this, we will educate Mrs. Coopers 3rd grade students at Olympic View Elementary on dental health basics at an age-appropriate level. This will include topics such as recommended toothbrushing and dental visit frequency, proper brushing technique, and food and beverages that promote oral health rather than oral disease.
The mission of our project is to improve the oral health of elementary school children through the promotion of proper daily toothbrushing, and knowledge of anti-caries food and beverages. We will educate the students on various topics to reduce their overall caries experience and provide strategies for them to do so. In order to measure our objective of decreasing the chance for caries experiences in our target population, we will conduct a before and after survey to assess the student’s comprehension of the material. This will also help us to determine the effectiveness of our outreach project curriculum. Our pre and post survey questions will consist of recommended brushing frequency, duration of brushing, and number of dental visits the children should have each year. This is our means of collecting qualitative data. Additionally, we are going to conduct a survey with questions that will result in both definite, measurable data as well as nominal data for our group to analyze. Both surveys may be viewed by clicking the link below.
Our interventional strategy to help us accomplish our mission is our educational presentation and nutritional class activity with the third-grade students at Olympic View Elementary School. In attempt to address the lack of education about oral health, which is a barrier to reducing the caries experience of school age children, we are going to carry out a number of activities during our visit. First, as previously stated we will be conducting questionnaires to collect data. Our lesson plan involves presenting an educational presentation, overseeing a nutritional activity, discussing sugar content of common snacks, presenting proper brushing techniques, and collecting post-survey questionnaire data. At the end of our visit, we will give the participants a take home bag consisting of a 21-day, healthy habit forming calendar with stickers to track their progress, along with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and a floss pick. By clicking the links below, the various educational materials as well as associated costs may be viewed.
The desired outcomes of our community outreach program are overall improved knowledge on best oral health practices in third grade students, with a focus on better brushing as well an increased understanding of the ways different snacks and beverages can influence our chance of developing cavities. Together, if our desired outcomes are achieved they should help to meet our goal of improving the oral health and reducing caries experiences in school aged children. To obtain acceptance from our target population, we will need to contact Olympic View Elementary School to find out how to be visitors at the school. We will also need to contact a 3rd grade teacher, explain our intention of carrying out an oral health promotion project, and coordinate a time and date if they are to agree. One of our group members has a child who attends school there and will take charge in doing so.
Upon receiving approval and setting a date, we expect that the third-grade students will be excited to have visitors and happily participate in surveys, group discussions, and activities. Due to the fact that we are not finished with COVID-19 pandemic, we do anticipate that there will be constraints while trying to reach our target audience. One of the requirements for us to present to this class was that each member of the group was to complete and online volunteer application and a few online courses pertaining to COVID-19 precautions and prevention of sexual abuse of children and youth. We were also required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. An obstacle we did face near the beginning of our planning was the inability to carry out our project at an elementary school in Tacoma that we originally wanted to visit. This was our first choice in schools because almost all of the students in attendance come from low-income families. Due to COVID restrictions and other circumstances we needed to find another audience. Through the Seattle Public School website and other online resources, we found that the students at Olympic View Elementary were also representative of our target population. If we are to encounter additional obstacles, we will either look to other districts that may not have as strict COVID restrictions in place or we may conduct a zoom presentation as another alternative strategy.