This February, the students in the Dental Assistant program at Ross Medical Education Center in Cincinnati, Ohio paid a visit to the children at Kings Elementary. This was their second visit to talk with the students during National Children’s Dental Health Month. Kings Local School District is located in Southwest Ohio’s Warren County. Kings has been highly ranked nationally in academics and also has been named a Best Community for Music Education by the National Association of Music Merchants in 2014.
The Ross students were very excited to visit the school, and they quickly got to work setting up seven activity stations in the gym for students to learn about oral hygiene. The students had so much fun learning and walked away with many goodies including toothbrushes, coloring books, a cut out tooth with a smiley face, flossers, animal crackers, gloves, and a mask. Theresa House, the Preschool Intervention Specialist, followed up with Ross Lead Dental Instructor, Shawna Banks, after the event to share about how impressed she was, “thank you so much for working with us and presenting such an amazing event for our students. All the teachers were impressed with your students and the activities they provided. The students couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had.” Theresa also said she hopes that the Cincinnati Ross Medical Education Center campus can continue to make this an annual activity as these past two years have been so successful.
Bethany Chaffin, a morning Dental Assistant student, shared about her experience, “going to the preschool today was great! I thought it was amazing how all the children loved learning about how to take proper care of your oral hygiene. It was even more amazing how excited they were to tell you about what they have already been doing to take care of their teeth.” In her group they played a game of hot potato with a variety of foods that were good for teeth and one food that was bad for teeth. In the beginning, the Ross students went through all the foods that were good for teeth and pointed out the bad food. Then explained the game, and the kids were so excited to play. They learned that it’s always important to brush teeth after eating the “bad foods”!
“During this experience my choice of going into a pediatric office was confirmed. I love having an effect on children’s lives,” shared Bethany. The other students agreed; even though it was a challenge to keep the attention of some of them, they were excited that they were able to get the kids interested in important, dental related information through fun and games. They were thrilled to pass on some of the knowledge they have regarding oral hygiene to children that are society’s future. Everyone agreed that the experience was a great one, and they loved the feeling of giving back to their community in a real and very important way!