Dental Hygiene Students went to the Maryland School for the Blind in November as part of an a program that identifies communities in need of oral health care and seeks to provide outreach.
Students participating were Katie Dingle, Erin Hemler and Erin Wheeler.
Senior dental hygiene students in the Community Oral Health course identify an underserved community and develop a community oral health program that includes health promotion and disease prevention activities for their target population.
The students conduct a needs assessment for the community by researching demographics, census data and other available resources to gather information about their target community.
The students then implement an educational program that addresses the oral health literacy needs of their population.
Katie Dingle lives in Baltimore County and wanted to target individuals in her county who are often dentally underserved, so she identified the students at the Maryland School of the Blind as her target group given that people with vision and other disabilities historically have special oral health and educational needs that place that at risk for dental disease.
Erin Wheeler and Erin Hemler presented oral health educational lessons to the students at Maryland School of the Blind along with Katie Dingle.