Panhandle Health District

                                                            8500 N. Atlas Road         Hayden, Idaho  83835

www.phd1.idaho.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      Date:     October 4, 2010           

Contact:                                                                        Released by: Lora Whalen                       

Cynthia Taggart                                                             Community Health Director

Public Information Officer

(208) 415-5108

(208) 818-7288 (cell)

Kiwanis Aids Tooth Protection for Children     

Coeur d’Alene – Conner Rosebrook, 3, pawed through the plastic bag until he found the treasure he’d seen his friends playing with. He held a green, hour-glass timer in the air triumphantly and watched closely as sand trickled from one end to the other.

              “They love the timers,” said Carrie Busch, a dental hygienist with the Panhandle Health District (PHD), as she painted bubblegum-flavored fluoride varnish on another child’s teeth. “These kids are so good. I expected some tears, but they’re all just great.”

              Busch applied fluoride varnish to the teeth of about 70 Head Start preschoolers at Coeur d’Alene’s Harding Family Center this week thanks to a $1,037 grant from the Coeur d’Alene Kiwanis Club.

              PHD used the grant to purchase oral health supplies for 300 infants and 500 children from lower-income families and 200 pregnant women in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

              Fluoride varnish is a protective coating that Busch brushes onto a child’s chewing surfaces and around the gum line. The process takes about two minutes and helps offset any starting decay.

              The Head Start children sat in tiny classroom chairs with their mouths wide open as Busch peered at their teeth with a lighted mirror.

              “Do you brush your teeth every night and every morning because they look really good?” she said to one child who nodded in answer. Busch paused from her exam and addressed all three children in the room. “Do you know what causes decay?” The kids stared at her expectantly. “Do you think it might be sugar?” Busch asked, and the children smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

              The fluoride varnish lasts six months. Children received bags filled with fluoridated toothpaste, dental floss, two-minute timers to use while brushing, toothbrush covers, stickers, information on tooth care and a list of local dentists who accept Medicaid. Mothers with infants also receive baby tooth wipes with Xylitol.

              The Coeur d’Alene Kiwanis grant will enable PHD to take the fluoride varnish program to Head Start children in all five northern counties.

For more information on PHD’s oral health program, visit www.phd1.idaho.gov.