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Local program helps children have healthy teeth

By PAM MOORE
Legacy Foundation

Children's oral health is in the news again. Among children aged 2-5, incidences of tooth decay rose from 24 percent in 1988 to 28 percent in 2004. This is particularly alarming since tooth decay in young children had been decreasing for 40 years.

What can we do about it in Cowley County? Tiny Teeth Healthy Habits is a local, not-for-profit corporation that addresses the problem.

Since 2002, Tiny Teeth has provided area families with education about positive oral health habits and tooth decay prevention. According to local dentists, the effort successfully reduced the incidence of major tooth decay in the youngest population by at least half.

Now, Tiny Teeth has set up a corporation to begin sharing its materials and program experience with other communities.

In addition to flip charts for parent educators and developmental materials for professionals who talk with parents, Tiny Teeth features safety toothbrushes especially designed for small children, books, videos, puzzles about eating healthy and taking care of baby teeth and brochures that show sugar content of popular drinks.

"Tiny Teeth Healthy Habits educational materials are very well done. They are easy to use, fun to see and show the best and most useful information. Selling our materials to other communities was a natural progression for the project," said Tiny Teeth Healthy Habits Director Rebecca Scott. "Communities can address oral health issues much more economically than if they have to design a new program."

Tiny Teeth Healthy Habits is available at a time when policy makers are realizing the importance of early childhood development.

Oral health in young children is directly linked with proper chewing and good nutrition, speech and language development, overall health, permanent teeth placement and social-emotional development relative to a child's smile; all essential to a child's development.

Tiny Teeth Healthy Habits materials were developed in collaboration with dental professionals, health department staff and early childhood specialists through generous funding by the United Methodist Health Ministries Fund and Legacy Regional Community Foundation.

While the program originated in Cowley County, it has grown to be a national supplier of oral health educational materials operating under the leadership of Legacy Regional Community Foundation.

"Our goal is to share the excellent work we've done in developing these materials with others," said Legacy Foundation Director Pam Moore. "Any profit made will return to the children of Cowley County."

For more information, visit the web site: www.tinyteethhealthyhabits.org

Above: Rebecca Scott, director of the Cowley County Tiny Teeth program, and operations manager Andrea McNown showed the Tiny Teeth program at the Parents as Teachers National Conference in St. Louis, recently.