Overview
Category
A Pennsylvania Medical/Dental Partnership
Healthy Teeth Healthy Children (HTHC), a program of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (PA AAP), is a state-wide educational program focused on improving oral health care for children by providing education to primary care providers, facilitating medical-dental partnerships and enhancing oral health literacy for the community. Through the EPIC (Educating Physicians in the Community) model, HTHC delivers free on-site training across the state to pediatric and prenatal clinicians, medical residents and students through two programs: Oral Health in Your Office – focusing on conducting pediatric oral health screenings, fluoride varnish application and associated technical assistance; and Oral Health in the Prenatal Office – focusing on promoting good oral health practices for pregnant women. As part of the PA Oral Health Collective Impact Initiative and in collaboration with the PA Head Start Association, PA Coalition for Oral Health and PA Association of Community Health Centers, HTHC is working to facilitate medical-dental integration across multiple settings, helping build referral systems at the local level, and encouraging the inclusion of oral health into overall health. In an effort to educate community members on the importance of oral health to overall health, HTHC provides oral health literacy materials to parents and communities and has launched two oral health literacy programs: Oral Health Story Kit – providing public libraries with story time resources around the theme of good oral health, including high-quality oral health books, coordinated craft and activity suggestions, parent information, and supporting engagement resources; and Oral Health Community Engagement Kit – providing university programs and clubs with oral health literacy resources to promote and support community outreach and service learning opportunities.
