More than 40% of low-income children in Arizona lack access to dental care.
Why is this important?
Children are born with a sterile oral environment. Over time, this sterile environment becomes infected through parent-child transmission, bottle soothing with sugary liquids, and of course, an insufficient oral hygiene maintenance. When parents are uninformed about the importance of oral hygiene, their children are predisposed to dental decay and disease simply due to a lack of education. Poor oral hygiene—and the resulting dental decay—not only affects a child’s health, but it also affect the child’s self esteem and performance in school. In Dr. Kris Volcheck’s interview for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, he stated, “Children with poor oral health miss thousands of hours of school due to painful teeth and gums; suffer from malnutrition due to their inability to eat fresh, nutritious foods; and suffer from low self-esteem because of their socially unacceptable smiles.”
How are we making a difference?
Education can break the cycle of misinformation. Under the guidance of Barrett Honors College Faculty, Dr. Abby Loebenberg, Operation Toothbrush is bringing awareness to the issue of childhood dental disease by educating children and parents, from lower socioeconomic levels, about what good oral hygiene entails. Dr. Loebenberg has studied early childhood education extensively. Her experience in the field has helped us design hands-on educational activities that should increase retention rate in children. We also provide these children with care packages—giving them the tools they need to maintain good oral hygiene at home everyday.
What have we done so far?
Since Operation Toothbrush began in August of 2016, we have reached ~500 children in Arizona. After introducing Operation Toothbrush to the University of Mississippi Honors College and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, we have create provisions to allow this program to scale nationally. By uploading all of our current activities and their accompanying video tutorials online, any organization or educational institution will be able to replicate what we are doing here at ASU.
For inquiries about starting your own Operation Toothbrush chapter, please email us.