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Low-income families living in rural areas often have difficulty accessing the dental health services that many of us take for granted. With more than half of the counties in our home state having fewer than 4 dentists per 10,000 people and 5 counties with no dental providers at all, it is very difficult for rural, low-income families in North Carolina to access routine dental care and education.
That’s why we were delighted to be a recipient of a Smiles for Kids grant from the Delta Dental Foundation on behalf of Delta Dental of North Carolina. Their support provided oral health education kits for 40 Head Start locations across our state. Low-income families in rural communities rely on Head Start programs for early childhood education, childcare, health screenings and other critical services. In rural communities, children enrolled in Head Start are less likely to be current on preventive care visits or to have accessed continuous dental care.
Grant funding made it possible to develop resources for 1,000 preschool children and their parents and caregivers to encourage healthy dental hygiene habits from an early age in order to prevent future dental health issues that often plague low-income communities. Materials included fun, oral health themed activity booklets, brochures with oral health tips for the whole family, basic products to support home care, and information on identifying a safety net dental provider.
Head Start staff were also equipped with oral health resources that promote prevention among children enrolled in their programs including a digital toolkit with educational activities for children and oral health information for Head Start staff, parents and caregivers.
Rural communities are often overlooked, even though they are typically the most under-resourced. Support from the Delta Dental Foundation makes it possible to address children’s oral health needs through a trusted community partner where they receive other critical family services, creates an ongoing partnership with Head Start programs in the future, and provides valuable data to provide similar initiatives to rural communities in other states as well.
