NEW GRANT MONEY AVAILABLE FOR ORAL HEALTH PROGRAMS IN LOW-INCOME SCHOOL DISTRICTS

- Reasons to Improve Children's Dental Health Education Keep Mounting  -

PARSIPPANY, NJ (March 22, 2010)

Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation announced today that its fourth annual Oral Health Education Initiative program for public and charter elementary schools in school districts formerly known as Abbott Districts is accepting applications through June 18, 2010. The grant program is designed to encourage teachers, curriculum coordinators, school nurses or anyone else in the school district to create a new or expanded 2010-2011 oral health education program for third-grade classes that teach young students the value of daily oral hygiene. 

At least three schools, each from separate districts, will be selected to receive up to $5,000 toward their programs. To date, Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation has awarded approximately $40,000 in Oral Health Education Initiative grants, as part of nearly $1 million in annual grants provided to New Jersey organizations that increase access to dental services for underserved populations.

The purpose of the grant is to underscore that good oral health leads to good overall health and that the continued need for improved oral health in America’s children, especially those in underserved areas, needs to be addressed at all levels, including in the classroom.

“When we discovered that New Jersey’s educational curriculum does not include specific dental education guidelines past the second-grade level, we saw an opportunity and a responsibility to expand learning to third-graders and help teachers instill good oral health habits that students can take with them into adulthood,” commented Diane Belle, vice president of the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation.

Applicant schools are asked to develop 10 monthly activities, one for each month of the school year, that help children understand why it is important to maintain proper daily oral hygiene; how to properly brush and floss; the role dentists and hygienists play in overall health maintenance and disease prevention; and the relationship between good food choices and oral health.

Recipients of the 2009-2010 Oral Health Education Initiative grants include Florence Avenue Elementary School in Irvington, E.W. Kirkpatrick School in Paterson, Joseph H. Brensinger School in Jersey City and Joseph C. Caruso School in Keansburg. Their programs showcase a range of creative activities, mentoring initiatives and field trips. 

Irvington: Florence Avenue Elementary school is a first-year grant recipient. Its grant was used to purchase much-needed toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash for its 94 third-grade students, as well as oral health educational materials, including DVDs, posters and books. Dental health experts addressed school wide assemblies; field trips to local dentists for health care checkups were also planned. 

Paterson: Activities include the use of videos, books and CDs; hands-on learning workshops; and field trips to local dentists’ offices. A science “eggsperiment” in which students coat half of a raw eggshell with fluoride toothpaste and leave the other half clear, dip the egg in an acid solution and observe the results is a novel idea. A unique mentoring partnership between the students in the district’s Academy for Health and Related Professions— that prepares high school students for careers in the medical and allied health fields — and the third-graders learning about oral health is also part of the program. The E.W. Kirkpatrick School in Paterson is the second school in Paterson to receive the grant.

Jersey City: Children in the school’s third-grade will be screened for potential dental issues by the Hudson County Dental Society, study proper eating habits and the connection between nutrition and good oral health, and receive hands-on learning and supplies for proper oral health maintenance routines, including brushing and flossing.

Keansburg: The Joseph C. Caruso Elementary School in Keansburg, N.J., has distinguished itself as the only N.J. elementary school to receive three years of continued grant funding. The school demonstrated at the onset that only 10 percent of its third-graders had ever been to a dentist, and how access to care was significantly increased by collaborating with local hospitals and dentists to bring needed services to the students. The program also encouraged peer education, by inviting fourth-graders to serve as oral health ambassadors to incoming third-graders, proudly sharing their previous educational experience with their younger schoolmates. 

Reasons to Improve Children’s Dental Health Education Keep Mounting
According to the American Dental Association, tooth decay is increasingly a disease of children from low- and modest-income households. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that among children suffering from tooth decay, almost 50 percent of these cases remain untreated, with the disease resulting in pain, dysfunction, being underweight or having poor appearance — all problems that can greatly reduce a child’s capacity to succeed in the educational environment, as well as outside of school. Through proper oral hygiene and nutrition, childhood tooth decay can be prevented.

Nearly 10 years after the surgeon general’s landmark oral health study revealed that more than 51 million school hours are lost due to dental-related illnesses each year, a new independent national study commissioned by the not-for-profit Delta Dental Plans Association reveals that children’s oral health care in too many cases is still inadequate. The study indicated that parents have the greatest influence on children’s oral health — but home dental health care is still too often insufficient and parental influence declines with income level. Lower-income respondents indicated that schools have the greatest influence.¹ 

The study² also found that close to 5 percent of Americans say their child has missed school due to oral health problems. The situation is worse for children of low-income families, who were found in the study to be twice as likely to miss school due to oral health problems.

“An estimated one in five children in America go without dental care each year, and two-thirds of states do not have effective policies in place to ensure proper dental health and access to care,” according to a report by the Pew Center on the States. “The Cost of Delay: State Dental Policies Fail One in Five Children,” released with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the DentaQuest Foundation, grades each state’s policy responses to the urgent challenges in dental health among America’s low-income children.”³ New Jersey received a failing grade in the study, which cited a lack of policies for improving dental care in that state.

On March 16, New Jersey’s Governor Christie announced a reduction of more than $800 million in state funding for all of New Jersey’s school districts, and the underserved districts’ challenges will be greater than ever before. 

Offering Some Relief
“Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation is proud to be able to sustain the Oral Health Education Initiative to provide alternative funding for innovative school districts,” said Gene F. Napoliello, D.D.S., president, Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation. “We have maintained our level of giving in all areas of our foundation throughout the recession. The individuals and families who we serve are just too important for us to doing anything but maintain our assistance.”

Delta Dental will accept Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation’s Oral Health Education Initiative applications through June 18, 2010. 2010-2011 grantees will be notified on or before August 15, 2010. For more information, please contact Kimberly Elmore at 973-944-4555 or kelmore@deltadentalnj.com. To learn about other school programs or the Kid’s Club offered by Delta Dental of New Jersey, visit www.deltadentalnj.com. For current news about the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation, including previous Oral Health Education Initiative grant recipients, visit the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation Facebook page and read our blog on nj.com/Helping Hands.

¹U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health, Rockville, Md.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. NIH Publication No. 03-5303, Spring 2003.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/oralhealth/nationalcalltoaction.html

²DDPA 2009, Children’s Oral Health Survey, August 7, 2009, Morpace Market Research & Consulting, Survey Results presentation.

³http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=56870

About Delta Dental
Delta Dental of New Jersey Inc. is New Jersey’s leading dental benefits company, providing or administering coverage to more than one million people through contracts with employers in New Jersey and Connecticut. The Delta Dental system offers seamless dental benefits administration for employer groups throughout the country and has the largest network of dentists in the nation. For more information, visit www.deltadentalnj.com.

About Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation
Delta Dental established the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation in 1986. Its mission includes promoting and assisting educational projects devoted to the enhancement of dental health, providing research programs designed to increase public awareness of the general benefits of good health, and improving dental health through the science of dentistry. Each year, Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation provides financial support to various organizations throughout the state.