UNLV's School of Dental Medicine, in partnership with the Colgate company, will provide free dental screenings to at-risk children at five local elementary schools Dec. 6- 10 as part of the Colgate company's Bright Smiles, Bright Futures oral health improvement program. More than 1,200 children are expected to be served by the program.
Faculty, students, and staff from the UNLV School of Dental Medicine will accompany the Colgate mobile dental van to a different school each day to conduct dental screenings and to distribute free oral care kits, which include toothpaste, a toothbrush, and brushing instructions. The program will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the following schools:
* Dec. 6 - Robert Taylor Elementary School, 144 Westminster Way, Henderson
(At this location only, the program mascot, Dr. Rabbit, will be on hand to paint children's faces, distribute balloons, and hand out temporary tattoos).
* Dec. 7 - Hinman Elementary School, 450 E. Merlayne, Henderson
* Dec. 9 - Vegas Verde Elementary School, 4000 El Parque Ave., Las Vegas
* Dec. 8 - Whitney Elementary School, 5005 Keenan, Las Vegas
* Dec. 10 - Crestwood Elementary School, 1300 Pauline Way, Las Vegas
Colgate created the Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program in 1991 to help improve the oral health of underserved children around the country. Each year, more than 8 million at-risk children and their families receive oral health education and/or free dental screenings through the BSBF program. This is the first time the Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program has been held in Las Vegas.
According to a U.S. Surgeon General's Report on health disparities, more than 51 million school hours are lost each year to dental related illness. The study also found that tooth decay is the single most common chronic childhood disease (five times more common than asthma) and that poor, rural, and minority children are twice more likely to suffer its consequences than are children from more affluent families.
The Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program is just one of many community outreach efforts conducted by the UNLV School of Dental Medicine to encourage oral health care. To date, UNLV dentistry students have assisted in screening approximately 1,665 third-graders as part of the State of Nevada Oral Health Screening Program, provided oral hygiene and nutrition information to nearly 5,400 children in 30 at-risk schools, and treated more than 45,000 Medicaid patients at the dental school's clinics.
