WAILUKU - Advice on how to avoid baby bottle tooth decay is being distributed in free dental packets to families of newborn babies in a new Maui Community College program provided at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
The packets also contain a toothbrush for a child with a handle for an adult, informational brochures and a sample teeth-cleaning wipe for infants. The first 200 packets were distributed last week to the hospital's Obstetrics Department by MCC Dental Assisting Program coordinator Joyce Yamada, her students and high school students from Seabury Hall.
The yearlong program plans to distribute about 1,900 packets to parents, matching the estimated number of babies expected to be delivered at the hospital. About 50 dental kits are also available for Spanish-speaking families.
Informational brochures include: "A Healthy Mouth
For Your Baby" from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and "Keep Your Baby Smiling . . ." from the state Department of Health.
By reaching every family of a newborn on Maui with a dental care packet, the Dental Assisting Program hopes to improve the oral care of Maui's children and reduce their rates of tooth decay.
According to the state Department of Health, children in Hawaii have twice the amount of tooth decay as children on the U.S. Mainland. The situation is even worse in Maui County where tooth decay rates surpasses the state average.
Yamada said the packets of dental kits were put together as part of her ongoing encouragement to dental assisting students to participate in service projects in their community.
"By sharing their knowledge, they get experience in working with others," Yamada said.
Other service projects have included visits with senior citizens and preschoolers, and attending public fairs at the mall and events such as the American Heart Association's annual Heart Walk. The Dental Assisting Program currently has 16 students.
Last year, the program served more than 9,500 of Maui's children, pregnant women, seniors and others in 16 service projects.
Yamada also oversees a new two-year training program launched in March for dental hygienists. There are 10 students enrolled in the program.
To produce the dental kits for newborns, Yamada received support from Young Brothers Ltd., which gave her a $1,000 grant; and Pedodontics Associates, which supplied bags for the packets. She also received support from the Maui County Dental Hygiene Society, the Maui County Dental Society, and the Women Infants and Children program.
The WIC program will assist with surveying families about the effectiveness of the dental kits.
