DENTAL HYGIENE
SADHA Organizes Children’s Summer Smile Drive Last spring, members of the dental school’s Student Chapter of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (SADHA) knew that young people in southeast Michigan were being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic just like everyone else during the uncertain time – and so was their dental hygiene. Members put together a plan to support underserved youth and called it their Children’s Summer Smile Drive. The group’s vision was to create a gift for youth that would be educational. It would encourage them to brush and floss their teeth, provide information on why it is best to avoid sugary drinks, encourage them to stay healthy by taking care of their teeth, and provide them with the supplies to do so, such as age-appropriate toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss. The initiative was led by fourth-year DH student Rachel Mundus, SADHA’s Community Service Chair, who has many years of experience in community outreach in southeast Michigan. When she explained the group’s plan to various community and dental school contacts, it received immediate support in the form of oral health supply donations. The dental school’s Dental Stores donated toothpaste and School of Dentistry bags, and Dr. Jan Hu, chair of the Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences &
and utilized donated educational materials to include in the gift packs. The Smile Drive started with two at-risk youth programs in Ypsilanti by collaborating with Eastern Michigan University’s Bright Futures program and Circles of Washtenaw County, a program affiliated with Friends in Deed, a community support non-profit. The drive also connected with 64 families served by Peace Neighborhood in Ann Arbor. A Foster Children’s Closet supported by an Ann Arbor church received 150 packs.
DH students Rachel Mundus, left, and Maysa Sawabini prepare toothbrushes and other gift pack contents for distribution at a community event.
Prosthodontics, supported the effort, as did the Ann Arbor Pediatric Dentistry practice. Mundus wrote a community grant to the Delta Dental Foundation of Michigan and was awarded literature and youth toothbrushes for the Smile Drive. SADHA vice president Merysta Smith, a fourth-year student, contacted Crest and Oral B representatives and they shipped donated supplies, including oral health bundles. SADHA created a custom flyer with oral health information
SADHA reached out even further, into the Detroit area, by distributing dental hygiene packs through the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation in the southwest part of the city. SADHA’s president Maysa Sawabini, who lives in Dearborn, worked with ACCESS Dearborn (the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services) to distribute 140 packs for the organization’s summer health fair. Overall, SADHA’s Summer Smile Drive donated 1,379 toothbrushes and 597 oral hygiene packs to southeast Michigan communities. “We want to thank everyone who contributed in any way to the Children’s Summer Smile Drive,” Mundus said. “Through this collaborative support, children and families across southeast Michigan received oral hygiene supplies that we hope brightened their smiles during these trying times.”
Research Project Links Mental Health and Oral Health Dental Hygiene faculty member Danielle Rulli is part of an innovative project that has received additional funding to continue research on improving the oral health of people with mental health disabilities. Rulli, a Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Graduate Dental Hygiene Program, is collaborating on a project led by Dr. Adrienne Lapidos, a Clinical Assistant
Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the U-M Medical School.
Community Health Workers and Certified Peer Support Specialists.
The “Peer Oral Health Initiative – Developing and Testing a Brief Intervention Model” received a $49,250 grant from the Delta Dental Foundation that supplements an earlier $50,000 grant received from the Depression Center’s Eisenberg Collaborative Innovation Fund. The project builds on a previous grant from the Michigan Health Endowment that allowed the researchers to create oral health training modules for
“Our project focuses on training community health workers, peer support specialists, and peer recovery coaches to talk to their clients with mental health disabilities about oral health, and to connect them with a dental home in their community,” Rulli said. “In this project, we will develop motivational interviewing materials and other supports for these community workers, and will include short videos of people sharing their oral health recovery stories.” DENTAL HYGIENE 15 Fall 2020 | M Dentistry
