• Watch Your Mouth Massachusetts: The Watch Your Mouth Coalition Is Working In Massachusetts, New Hampshire And Maine To Make Children's Oral Health A Priority. Objectives of the Watch Your Mouth Coalition are to Educate the public that tooth decay is the most common childhood disease that can cause diminished school performance and poor overall health. WYM advocates for wider access to preventive services, such as dental sealants and fluoride, and regular dental exams for all children.
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Resources

Programs and Education

There are a variety of organizations that provide free tools to community advocates for oral health. Click on any of the links below for more information:

  1. The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center has a variety of useful tools for advocates and program managers. One great resource is the center's Bright Horizons Toolkit for oral health education. See: http://www.mchoralhealth.org/Toolbox/index.html
  2. The Resource Center's Guide to Pediatric Oral Health Management: http://www.mchoralhealth.org/PediatricOH/
  3. The Open Wide curriculum is another great resource for health professionals who work with children. As they describe on their website: "This curriculum offers health and early childhood professionals information to help them prevent tooth decay, which still afflicts many U.S. children, especially children from families with low incomes, children in certain minority groups, and children with special health care needs. The modules present professionals with information about tooth decay, risk factors, and prevention; explain how to perform an oral health risk assessment and oral health screening; and highlight anticipatory guidance to share with parents." See: http://www.mchoralhealth.org/OpenWide/index.htm
  4. The American Academy of Pediatrics offers resources for physicians to use when examining and educating children and their parents. See: http://www.aap.org/commpeds/dochs/oralhealth/resources.cfm
  5. The American Dental Association offers the 'Smile Smarts' school-based curriculum free of charge. This series of educational modules can be used to help children from preschool to eighth grade understand the importance of oral health. See: http://www.ada.org/public/education/teachers/smilesmarts/index.asp
  6. Oral Health America provides assistance in coalition development and publishes a yearly report card for each state and the nation on the state of oral health. Massachusetts was ranked far below many other states in the last report, earning an average C. We're leaders in both education and health care- we can do better than this! PDF report: http://www.oralhealthamerica.org/pdf/2003ReportCard.pdf

Fluoride

  1. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains a national reporting system for water systems, provides fluoridation training, collaborates with state and tribal partners to increase their capacity to provide fluoridated water to communities, and communicates information about the benefits, safety, and cost-effectiveness of water fluoridation. See: http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/
  2. The Massachusetts Coalition for Oral Health is an organization dedicated to improving the oral health of the residents of Massachusetts through the use of effective, community-based oral health education and preventive measures. They provide a variety of resources on fluoride and community water fluoridation in Massachusetts. See: http://www.fluoridefacts.org
  3. The American Dental Association has a virtual library of information about fluoridation that is all available on-line. See: http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fluoride/index.asp
  4. The ADA also publishes a very useful book called Fluoridation Facts, which addresses all things fluoride. PDF Booklet: http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fluoride/facts/fluoridation_facts.pdf
  5. The National Fluoridation Center also offers a wealth of information to browsers. See: http://www.fluoridationcenter.org/

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Watch Your Mouth Massachusetts is supported by grants from the Oral Health Foundation and Dental Services of Massachusetts.
Watch Your Mouth Coalition.