June 2010 E-News

Fall for Smiles campaign | Smiles Across America updates

June 2010 eNewsletter
Oral Health America

IN THIS ISSUE
OHA and Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait Launch Fall for Smiles Campaign
Plackers Teams Up with Smiles Across America®
OHA Awards Grant to MORE HEALTH
47 Communities Report Progress through Smiles Across America®
Give Kids a Smile Events Benefit from OHA Sealant Donations

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Annual Report and Annual Fund Campaign


OHA’s goal is to raise

$2 million to connect communities with oral health resources and care. In 2009, 73 cents out of every dollar donated to OHA went to our programs. Take a look at our Annual Report.  Budgets are shrinkins and community needs are growing.  Please give a gift  to OHA that you would consider generous in  2010!

Oral Health America

IN THE NEWS!

Dental Products Report profiled OHA in the June 2010 issue, interviewing OHA’s President & CEO Beth Truett.
Read the article here

Dental Abstracts intivited OHA to review our 2009 Medical Dental Dialogues - Collaborative Healthcare for Older Adults .
Find the article here(Payment required)
Tampa Bay Online ran an article about MORE HEALTH and mentioned OHA’s support of the program.
The Rethink Learning Now campaign launched a national storytelling initiative, asking the public to submit their most powerful learning experiences. OHA’s Liz Rogers’ story has been selected as one of 50 stories that will be published in a book.

BLOGGING FOR OHA
Our UNC intern, Ben Anders, is blogging for OHA. Read about his Mouth Full of Reasons to Support OHA by clicking the link below!
DONATION CONTEST ON FACEBOOK

This month, visitors to OHA’s Facebook page got the opportunity to win toothbrushes for their favorite charity! Winner Cari Cook chose the Sojourner Truth House in Gary, IN, to receive 500 adult toothbrushes. Congratulations Cari and her charity! Become a fan of OHA’s Facebook page for future donation opportunities.

THANK YOU TO THE CHICAGO DENTAL SOCIETY (CDS) FOUNDATION
Oral Health America would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the genrous support we received from the Chicago Dental Society Foundation in 2009 to support the expansion of oral health education in the Chicago Public Schools. Regretfully, our Annual Report only mentioned the Chicago Dental Society and not the Foundation as well. Our sincere apologies.
MICHIGAN ORAL HEALTH CONFERENCE
INCLUDES FOCUS ON ORAL HEALTH AND OLDER ADULTS

Oral Health America President and CEO Beth Truett attended the Michigan Oral Health Conference, hosted by the Michigan Oral Health Coalition, and opened the second day with a presentation about the importance of oral health care for older adults, including the challenges facing seniors when it comes receiving adequate oral health care.

“Beth’s talk provided participants with a glimpse into the latest research and resources related to oral health and older adults,” said Karlene Ketola, MHSA, Executive Director of the Michigan Oral Health Coalition.

OHA ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF FALL FOR SMILES® CAMPAIGN

Oral Health America (OHA) announces the launch of Fall for Smiles®, a public messaging campaign conducted in collaboration with Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait®, an initiative of the Dental Trade Alliance. The campaign begins in September to promote messages to consumers about the importance of self care, good nutrition, regular dental visits, and tobacco avoidance in maintaining oral health.

During the campaign, OHA will announce the results of a public opinion survey on consumers’ beliefs about oral health. Sponsored by Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait and Plackers dental flossers, the survey of more than 1,000 adults and more than 1,000 children asked questions about oral care habits and perceptions.

“Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait shares a common purpose with OHA’s Fall for Smiles campaign–to increase dental patient awareness,” said Gary Price, CEO, Dental Trade Alliance.  “Our members are encouraged by the collaborative nature of this effort, and the multiple opportunities for outreach to patient populations and opinion leaders throughout the country.”

Read the full press release here

TEAMS UP WITH SMILES ACROSS AMERICA®
Plackers, a leading brand of consumer oral care products, has partnered with Oral Health America (OHA) to donate dental flossers that will reach more than 30,000 children in need through the Smiles Across America® (SAA) program.
Plackers dental flossers will be sent to SAA sites across the country and to many other locations via SAA Product Donation Project distribution channels.  A finanical contribution will help expand SAA and launch OHA’s new Fall for Smiles® consumer messaging campaign.
“Plackers is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Oral Health America and support the Smiles Across America and Fall for Smiles programs,” said Tom Barman, Director of Marketing for Plackers. “Plackers is committed to educating families about the importance of flossing and routine dental care and ensuring that underserved communities have access to the oral care products and the oral health services they need.”

SMILES ACROSS AMERICA® GRANT AWARDED TO MORE HEALTH
Oral Health America recently awarded a Smiles Across America® (SAA) planning grant to MORE HEALTH, Inc., in Tampa, FL, which partners with Tampa General Hospital and All Children’s Hospital on school health programming.

“MORE HEALTH is a strong force in both Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. They have an enviable 20-year record of providing quality supplemental health education, including dental, to students in grades K through 12,” said OHA Board Chair George Rhodes. “MORE HEALTH has built outstanding relationships with the schools in both counties and will collaborate with its other partners to leverage school-based oral health services.”

The SAA grant allows MORE HEALTH to work with the Hillsborough County Oral Health Coalition and the Public Health Dental Program through the Florida Department of Health to develop an oral disease prevention program model for schools.

“We hope that at the end of this grant cycle we will have developed a pilot program with the school district’s approval to provide screening and sealants to children at high risk for oral disease,” said Karen Pesce, R.N., Executive Director of MORE HEALTH.

Pictured above: Dr. Terry Bruckheimer, Chair, ADA Council of Membership; Karen Pesce, ED, MORE HEALTH; Beth Truett, OHA President and CEO; George Rhodes, Chair, OHA Board of Directors

47 COMMUNITIES REPORT ON THE EFFECT OF SMILES ACROSS AMERICA® PROGRAM

OHA’s Smiles Across America® (SAA) funded sites, representing a total of 47 different communties recently turned in their yearly reports to let us know how our grants, technical assistance, and product donations have helped them to improve preventive oral care.

Terri Chandler, RDH, Program Director of SAA grantee Future Smiles in Las Vegas, NV reported on the program’s impact on one family.

“Through a relationship with Title 1 Hope (a local homeless advocacy support program whose mission is to keep kids in school), three sisters were recently seen at the Cunningham Health Center,” wrote Ms. Chandler.  “The oldest, a 12-year-old girl, had never had a dental prophylaxis (cleaning). At the end of her treatment, she was so thankful and full of hugs to have the orange chromogenic bacterial stain and calculus removed from her teeth. It was the first time in years that she could smile without shame.”

At the Second Annual Community-wide Symposium in Prince George’s County, MD, last month, OHA Board Member Mary Lee Conicella, D.M.D., F.A.G.D., presented the Deamonte Driver Dental Project with a “giant check” representing an SAA planning grant awarded this year to help fund a brand-new mobile dental clinic. The 39-foot clinic includes three dental operatories and digital X-ray systems.

Pictured above from left to right: Dr. Edward Chappelle Jr., Dr. Darrell Clark, Dr. Brenda Howard, Dr. Sandra Caldwell, OHA Board Member and Aetna Dental’s National Director of Clinical Operations Dr. Mary Lee Conicella, Dr. William Milton, Dr. Hazel Harper, Dr. Fredrick Clark, Ms. Betty Thomas, Dr. Belinda Carver-Taylor, Dr. Secunda Wright-Perry, Dr. Riccardo Jones, Dr. Larry McNair and Dr. Alan Gordon.

MEHARRY’S UNIQUE ADOPT-A-GRANDPARENT PROGRAM AIMS TO MEET COMMUNITY CARE NEEDS
Adopt-a-Grandparent

Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry’s Wilda J. Seibert Adopt-A-Grandparent program in Nashville has provided free dental care to economically disadvantaged seniors in the area for more than 26 years. OHA provided the program with 1,008 toothbrushes in May.

“This generous donation will help many individuals in the program who are 2010 flood victims. These seniors will be able to maintain good oral hygiene practices during their loss and displacement from their homes,” said Audra Cox, M.S. Ed, Senior Development Officer for Corporate and Foundation Relations at Meharry Medical College.

“The Adopt-a-Grandparent Program is beneficial to the community in many ways in that patients can have their dental, medical and mental health issues addressed through the Meharry School of Dentistry.”

Currently, over 100 older adults are waiting for treatment, which is made available to them through the fundraising efforts of the program’s coordinator, Wilda J. Seibert. The progarm celebrated its connections to the community with a luncheon this spring, and was featured recently on the local NBC Affiliate Channel 4 – WSMV. Click here to watch the video!

GIVE KIDS A SMILE EVENTS BENEFIT FROM OHA SEALANT DONATIONS

In Burns Flat, Oklahoma, Western Technology Center celebrated GKAS in February by offering oral health screenings and activities to second and third-graders at Weatherford East Elementary School. Students who were determined to need sealants were invited back in April for treatment. Dental hygiene students from Western Technology Center’s partnership program with the University of Oklahoma’s School of Dental Hygiene helped screen 259 students at the GKAS event. OHA donated sealants for this event in 2009 and 2010.

The Arizona Dental Foundation partnered with A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health in Mesa, AZ, for its fifth annual Give Kids a Smile (GKAS) event on April 16. Thirty-one volunteer dentists treated 313 children and placed 320 sealants. OHA has donated sealants to the Arizona Dental Society and Dental Society Foundation for the past six years.

“Our GKAS model requires a healthy relationship with the hygiene schools throughout the state to clean and screen children prior to restorative events or office referral. We could not accomplish this without OHA’s generous product contributions,” said Ginger Froncek, Executive Director of the Arizona Dental Foundation.

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This email was sent to melissa@oralhealthamerica.org by info@ohasmiles.org.


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