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Grants and Contracts Supporting the Outreach and Engagement Activities at The College of Dentistry 2005 - 2006 - 2007

2006 Interdisciplinary University/Community Service-Learning Team Grants

1. Incorporation of Nutritional Health Promotion and Oral Health Care for the Poor and Underserved Population in Downtown Columbus: An OSU Service-Learning Initiative.

Abdel R. Mohammad, Clinical Professor, College of Dentistry; Gail L. Kaye, Program Director, Department of Human Nutrition, College of Human Ecology; Beverly Kelbaugh, Director of Franklin County Extension; 2006-2007 class of dietetic interns; 2006-2007 senior class of dental students; Family Practice Clinic.

This collaboration between faculty in the College of Dentistry and Department of Human Nutrition will enhance the quality of healthcare services for underserved populations. Patients at risk of heart disease, stroke, and diet-related disease will receive comprehensive dental care, nutrition education, and diet counseling. This project will provide an opportunity to apply service-learning principles while experiencing the opportunities and challenges of interprofessional collaboration.

The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program Grant
2. “OSU Reaches Out for Better Health: Development of a Pilot Tobacco Cessation Program in Appalachia” Columbus, Ohio. Funded through the College of Medicine and Public Health. 2006-2007.

3. Title: Community-based Service Learning for Dental Students through Collaboration with Head Start and "Give Kids a Smile! Day"

Audience: Head Start children, ages 3-6 (1,400), school-age children, grades K-8 (160)
Partners: Hilary Soller, Canise Bean, and Jessie Tudor (Dentistry), dental and dental hygiene students (all years eligible), dental and dental hygiene faculty, Primary Care and Oral Health Improvement Through Outreach (OHIO) Project administrative staff, Columbus Dental Society, Columbus Children's Hospital Pediatric Dental Residency Program, CDC Head Start Program, CD I (formerly CMACO) Head Start Program.

Dental students need first-hand experiences to appreciate the oral health needs of underserved populations and issues surrounding access to dental care. With the help of an O&E seed grant, all first-year and 80% of second-year dental students, working in pairs and supervised by faculty and community dentists, performed dental screenings and applied fluoride varnish for 3- to 5-year-olds at local Head Start centers. All students wrote reflection papers about their experience. Volunteer dental and dental hygiene students in third- and fourth-year classes signed up to provide screenings and educational programs at all four Capital Kids after-school programs.

• The project supported Head Start programs in their efforts to obtain required dental screenings for all enrolled children. Adding fluoride varnish application to the screening has increased children's access to a beneficial preventive dental service.
• Extending the program to school-age children in Capital Kids improved their access to vital preventive and educational services.
"Introducing Predoctoral Students to Community-Based Dentistry through Head Start Screenings" was presented by Dr. Janet Bolina and Dr. Hilary A. Soller at the annual meeting of the American Dental Education Association, March 2006.

4. Title: Oral Health Literacy Pilot Project

Audience: dental students, adult literacy program participants
Partners: Homa Amini (Pediatric Dentistry), Paul Casamassimo
(Pediatric Dentistry), dental students, dental hygiene students, Columbus Literacy Council, Community' Refugee and Immigration Services, Acculturation Program, Somali Senior and Family Services, Columbus Children's Hospital

Getting good health care is hard enough when trying to negotiate a system that uses your native language. Imagine it when you're an immigrant from a different culture who may have had little access to dental care. Recognizing that this issue also affects health care providers, dentistry faculty developed an oral health curriculum that taught Somali immigrants and other literacy learners about dental care for themselves and their children. At the same time, dental and dental hygiene students learned about the importance of health literacy and the need for sensitivity to different cultural attitudes and beliefs about oral health care. The students also provided free dental screenings to the adult literacy program participants, gaining experience in communicating about treatment needs with patients who are not native speakers of English.

• An oral health literacy curriculum is being piloted as part of the pediatric dentistry rotation.
• An oral health curriculum to meet the educational needs of the Adult Literacy Program participants includes books on dental care written at the appropriate reading level.
• Through the partnership with the Columbus Literacy Council, project staff are presenting at Franklin County events such as family literacy day.
• Very recent arrivals from Somalia who were experiencing pain and periodontal disease were referred to the OSU Dental Clinic for relief.
• A research preceptorship for a dental student research project led to a presentation and publication:

Assessment of Readability for 25 Pediatric Dentistry Patient Education Materials (H.-L. Lin, H. Amini, and J. Hayes), American Association of Dental Research 35th Meeting & Exhibition, Orlando, FL, March 10,2006
Assessment of Readability for 25 Pediatric Dentistry Patient Education Materials (H.-L. Lin, H. Amini, and J. Hayes), J Dent Res 85(Spec Iss A): abstract number 1513, 2006 (www.dentalresearch.org).

Other presentations:
Oral Health Literacy Pilot Project (H. Amini and B. Noel), presented at the National Oral Health Conference, 7th Joint Meeting of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, Little Rock, AR, May 1-3, 2006
Improving Oral Health of Ohioans through a University-Community Partnership (H. Amini and B. Noel), poster session accepted for the Outreach Scholarship Conference, Columbus, OH, October 8-10, 2006

  • Geriatric Dental Clinic - Supported by a seed grant from The OSU Campus Collaborative Inc. - 1999
  • Pilot Program to provide dental care to the elderly residing in Appalachia - Supported by a grant from The OSU Outreach and Engagement-Kellogg Foundation - 2000-2001
  • Tobacco Cessation Clinic - Supported by a grant from the OSU Outreach and Engagement - Kellogg Foundation - 2001
  • Appalachian Geriatric Dental Program - Supported by a contract from The Area Agency on Aging District #7 Inc. - Annual contract since 2001