Our new Registered Dental Hygienist, Kelly Smith

Kelly A. Smith, RDH (Chickasaw and Choctaw) has joined Indian Health Care Resource Center as a part-time Dental Hygienist. Ms. Smith comes to IHCRC from the dental practices of Wrany Southard, DDS in Tulsa and Craig Hine, DDS in Muskogee, Oklahoma where she served as a dental hygienist and a dental assistant. Ms. Smith is a Registered Dental Hygienist with the State of Oklahoma and is certified to administer local anesthesia and nitrous oxide. She earned an Associate of Applied Science, Dental Hygiene from the Tulsa Community College (TCC) in 2006.

Pediatric Oral Health Screenings Offered Every Week at IHCRC

Make plans to bring your young child and your school-age children to IHCRC's expanded dental department to get regular dental checkups. In addition to hiring two new dentists, IHCRC has hired a part-time dental hygienist with funding received from a new grant from the Indian Health Service (IHS). The IHS Health Promotion and Disease Prevention grant will be used to offer weekly pediatric oral health screening clinics.

Working alongside the IHCRC dentists, our new Registered Dental Hygienist, Kelly Howard, will conduct the pediatric dental screenings. (See provider bios, page 10).

All pediatric patients age 2-18 are encouraged to participate in the dental screening program to receive the health benefits of regular preventive dental health services. Parents can schedule a dental health check-up every six months for their children. Oklahoma's free SoonerCare health insurance will pay for all dental health care services for children up to the age 19. IHCRC eligibility staff is always available to assist parents enroll their eligible children into Oklahoma's free SoonerCare health insurance program for children.

In addition to the preventive oral health care (prophylaxis) provided by the dental hygienist, the children and their parents will receive oral health and nutritional health education. Parents and youth will learn how to make healthy snacks. With every dental health check-up visit, the pediatric patients will receive a bag of dental health goodies (toothbrush, dental floss and toothpaste).

A key objective of the project is to increase the number of children who are caries-free, which means they have never experienced any tooth decay. A large proportion of these deficiencies result from high decay rates in the primary teeth that occur very early in life, before many children ever visit a dentist. Preventing Baby Bottle Tooth Decay (BBTD) is a key objective of the pediatric oral health program.

At each pediatric screening session, the dental hygienist will examine the patient's teeth for caries, gum disease and any pediatric developmental issues. The hygienist will discuss with the child and the parent any corrective procedures that may be needed and why. The dental hygienist and the dentist will create a dental hygiene plan of care and when treatment needs are identified, the parent will be advised of the need to schedule a followup treatment visit with the dentist.

Prevention and diagnosis services provided by the dental hygienist will include dental screening (routine oral health exam and taking oral x-rays), oral health assessment, assessment of any periodontal disease, application of dental sealants and topical fluorides, and oral hygiene patient education about self-maintenance and disease prevention.

Patient education will include instruction on brushing and flossing (technique and frequency), a review healthy nutritional guidelines (fruits and veggies, rather than candy and other sweets), parental education, sports safety (use of mouth guards for contact sports) and tobacco education (both smoking and smokeless snuff tobacco) and referrals to the IHCRC tobacco cessation program.

Oral health education will include the promotion of sound nutritional habits to avoid excessive consumption of sugared beverages and foods.

IHCRC is fortunate to have a state-of-the-art dental facility equipped with digital diagnostic radiographic equipment and electronic health records. In the words of our dentist, Dr. Holleman, "the addition of the dental hygienist to our staff will greatly enhance our pediatric dental program and our expanded focus on prevention and pediatric oral health screenings."

The friendly staff of the IHCRC dental department is looking forward to staying busy this year by providing oral prevention services to a steady stream of Native American children. Call 918-382-1257 to schedule a dental screening visit for your child today.

Our dental staff especially encourages parents with preschool age children, who have yet to schedule a dental screening visit for their young toddler, to take advantage of this opportunity. In addition to the piece of mind the dental screening visit will give you, your children will surely appreciate receiving a free book.