Tooth Fairy Services

The UK Dental Outreach and Pediatric Dental programs have long standing and stable school-based dental programs in central Kentucky. We have positive relationships and existing affiliation agreements with the educational institutions making our proposed program “shovel-ready”. The current processes will be used to enable more children who are currently uninsured to receive oral health education and preventive dental care. The current process includes: a) delivery of consents to schools for distribution to parents at the beginning of the school year; b) return of consents and development of rotational schedule to the schools for exam, diagnosis, treatment planning and delivery of services based on the number of consents returned; c) implementation of services; d) data entry and assessment of outcomes. All children receive a spin brush and educational materials; parents receive an “oral health report card” telling them about the services received and encouraging them to be more involved with the children’s oral health. The primary short-term objectives of this proposed program are to: 1) provide approximately 111 uninsured children with oral health education and preventive services in the school-based dental outreach program and 2) provide dental students with a more robust experience in treating children so that they are more likely to treat children in their practice settings. The long term goal is to increase oral health literacy and thus, improve the attitudes of Kentuckians about oral health, making it an expectation to have good oral health for a lifetime.