community service
All Smiles: Marquette Students Help Fight Childhood Tooth Decay When Melissa Fischer, D2 student, noticed a 2-year-old girl sipping from a baby bottle filled with orange liquid, she seized the opportunity to educate the girl’s father about the importance of dental hygiene. As a dental student and one of more than 1,000 volunteers in 55 communities statewide who participated in this year’s Give Kids a Smile event, Fischer was keenly tuned in to the key issues surrounding tooth decay in young children. She approached the dad and gave him an early childhood cavities brochure. “I began talking to him, and [he] seemed shocked to learn about how bad it was to send his baby to sleep with a bottle,” Fischer says. “I also talked to him about frequency of exposure to juice and how he should be brushing his daughter’s teeth with an infant toothbrush and water. He was very receptive and thankful for the information.” Give Kids a Smile is a children’s dental access program organized by the Wisconsin Dental Association (WDA) with state and local government agencies and community organizations. In addition to providing services for low-income Wisconsin children, the event, now in its 10th year, educates people on the importance of good oral hygiene. The School of Dentistry campus clinic was one of this year’s event sites. In January, more than 100 dental students, 20 WDA dentists and faculty members, and Marquette undergraduate student translators volunteered to screen 368 children, ages two to 12. Then, in February, students like Fischer treated more than 51 children assigned from the screening day. During the two days, MUSoD provided
approximately $14,000 in free services. “Events like Give Kids a Smile get young patients excited about their dental health and help build enthusiasm at home,” Fischer says, adding that volunteering for events like these is as important to the community as it is to her education. “As a dental professional, it is important for me to remember that improving oral health is not something that can only be done in an operatory,” she says. “Providing basic education and instilling the importance of oral hygiene will provide far more important impact on a patient’s oral health than I could ever do with a hand piece.” As for the 2-year old girl and her father, Fischer ran into them again about two hours later. “I saw the bottle hanging from the baby’s mouth,” she says. “But the difference this time was that there was water in the bottle.”
“Providing basic education and instilling the importance of oral hygiene will provide far more important impact on a patient’s oral health than I could ever do with a hand piece.”
D E N TA D L EI M N TA A GLE SI M A 1 1G E S
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