Association Activities NYSDA Hopes New App Will Lead to Healthy Smiles ANYONE who hasn’t done so already, really does need to check out the NYSDA-created app “My HealthySmileNY.” Free to download, and available in both Spanish and English, it’s a platform for all kinds of helpful data, including: • Find a Dentist • Appointment Reminders • Tooth Talk—information on a variety of oral hygiene subjects • A quiz to test the user’s dental IQ There’s even a game to help improve a person’s toothbrushing technique. The app was designed by NYSDA Director of Health Affairs Betsy Bray. She received help with content formatting from Stephanie Allen, RDH, a certified dental health coordinator, who has been contracted by NYSDA and is working under a collaborative agreement with Finger Lakes Community Health. Ms. Allen’s role is to increase home utilization, health literacy and decrease no-show rates with caregivers and children enrolled in HeadStart. She is using the app when working one-on-one with families.
NYSDA Joins Multistate Effort to Reduce Opioid-related Deaths NYSDA’S CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY COMMITTEE is participating in a multistate initiative to reduce opioid-related deaths, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The HEALing (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Communities Study (HCS) is a four-year initiative that strives to reduce opioid deaths by 40 percent in communities acutely affected by the opioid crisis across four states—New York, Kentucky, Ohio and Massachusetts. Don Safferstein, the committee’s representative from the Bronx County Dental Society, has been chosen to represent NYSDA on the HCS Community Advisory Board. Membership on the advisory board consists of diverse stakeholders, such as the New York State Department of Health, Office of Substance Abuse Services; New York State Office of Mental Health; and the New York State Assembly. The collaborative effort is designed to implement evidence-based practices aimed at increasing medication-assisted treatment, expanding naloxone distribution and promoting safer prescribing. Local coalitions receive technical assistance to support planning and implementation of evidence-based practices in their communities to achieve the HCS goals. The project will be implemented in two waves, focused on counties with the highest death rates. Chemical Dependency Committee members are currently engaged in promoting the initiative in the targeted 16 counties throughout the state. For more information on the project and the targeted counties, visit: https://heal.nih.gov/research/research-to-practice/healing-communities.
10 APRIL 2021 The New York State Dental Journal ●
NYSDF Unveils Updated Ethics Course AN UPDATED VERSION of the NYSDA ethics course is now available on the New York State Dental Foundation website (www.nysdentalfoundation.org). The course, “Educating the Educated: Ethics & Jurisprudence for the Dental Practitioner,” satisfies the New York State-imposed licensure mandate. Dentists are required to take the course just once in their career. Course instructors are Dr. Frederick Moore and attorneys Carla Hogan and Lance Plunkett. It is recommended especially for dentists who are moving into New York State who did not fulfill the ethics requirement within their own states or dental residency programs. Those successfully completing the course earn 3 MCE credits. The cost to take it is $30 for residents, $60 NYSDA members and $120 nonmembers.
