Smile Guardians Reach 64,000 Kids

Many children in the United States are unaware of the causes of dental disease and how to prevent tooth decay. As a result, they often experience poor oral health throughout their lives, which can negatively impact their academic performance, self-esteem, job prospects, and overall well-being.

We believe every child deserves to understand how to maintain a healthy smile and have the tools necessary to prevent tooth decay. In 2019, with the support of a handful of donors, we began creating educational resource kits to support oral health advocates and safety-net dental care providers in teaching families about the importance of oral health and preventing dental disease.

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When we launched our Smile Guardian education initiative five years ago our intention was to provide a way for dental offices to support oral health education within their own communities. The organizations that have access to the children who are most at risk for dental disease often lack engaging printed materials, which can be quite expensive to produce. What we didn’t expect was generous contributions from larger corporate entities that helped us develop materials with special themes to address the different habits that impact oral health.

What started as a small scale initiative has grown into a full-blown program supported by industry leaders such as Patterson Dental Supply, Delta Dental, MGE Management Experts, Cranberry, Crest, Oral-B and many others, and reaching more than 100,000 kids and their caregivers.

During 2024 alone 64,000 kids learned about oral health with kits that were distributed to safety-net dental clinics, public libraries, food banks, afterschool programs, and individuals who could access schools, daycares, and other places where kids learn and play:

• United Healthcare sponsored kits to be used at community health fairs in Texas.
• Foodbanks received kits that focused on foods that are helpful and harmful to oral health thanks to sponsorships from Delta Dental of Kentucky Foundation, Delta Dental of Illinois, and Delta Dental of Oklahoma Foundation.
• Nonprofit dental clinics received special kits for back-to-school events that included fun photobooth photobooth props. These kits were part 10,000 Smiles Ready to Learn, a project funded by MGE Management Experts.
• Delta Dental of North Carolina sponsored kits for preschoolers in rural parts of North Carolina.
• School nurses in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio also received kits sponsored by the Delta Dental Foundation to educate 30,000 students.
• Support from Delta Dental of South Dakota provided resources so that 10 South Dakota libraries could establish hygiene closets and equip them to provide oral health education for 100 families each.

We’ve received overwhelming responses from school nurses, librarians, and food banks. They see rampant tooth decay and how it affects the children they serve but they often feel powerless to change the mindset and habits that lead to dental caries. These kits give them what they need to address these issues effectively.

“The cape and mask helped our kindergarten students get excited about being oral health super heroes and they really liked the activity booklets,” said Ashley Conder, (shown left with her students) a school nurse at Midland School District in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas. “The students were so excited about getting a new toothbrush and it is so encouraging to be able to give them a tool to help improve their health.”

Thanks to financial support from Cranberry, we’ve developed a webpage where dental professionals can sign up to sponsor kits that will be distributed to organizations serving at-risk kids in their local communities. The education packages can reach up to 5,000 families.

We encourage dental offices to participate in oral health presentations along with the kits but it is not required for sponsorship. The best part about sponsoring these education kits is it puts the resources into the hands of people who are already serving and trusted by families who experience a higher rate of dental disease and helps connect them with the care they need to have healthy smiles.

To provide oral health education kits for families in your community, visit our new Smile Guardian Program page.