First Smiles Exceeds Target Goals

CDA Foundation recently announced it has exceeded its goal to deliver training to 13,637 dental professionals.  First Smiles:  Dental Health Begins at Birth, an oral health education and training project funded by First 5 California, is co-administered by the CDA Foundation and the Dental Health Foundation through a joint-venture agreement. Complete project outcomes can be found in a cumulative evaluation report conducted over four years on the project’s web site, First5OralHealth.org.

The report cites that more than 90 percent of providers who took a First Smiles Course reported satisfaction with the training, had learned new information and skills and believed they could apply the information in their practice. A total of 57 percent of the participating dental providers said they had recommended the course to a colleague. This might explain the steady increase in visitors to the web site over the past three years. Since its launch in July 2005, more than 540,000 have visited the site. The increases in traffic have been significant: the first year’s monthly average was 5,422 visitors as compared to 2008’s of 24,306 per month. The web site offers a plethora of information for providers, educators and parents including the top three downloaded documents: Parent’s Presentation, Age-Appropriate Anticipatory Guidance and the Caries Risk Assessment Form. Highlights for providers are the free online continuing education opportunities that include archives of two CAMBRA webcasts.

According to CDA Foundation Program Director Rolande Loftus, First Smiles has been deemed a success on many levels. Not only has the program exceeded its overall goals, Loftus reports that it has exceeded its training of dentists by 26 percent. She adds, however, that the target goal for dental assistants has not been reached and asks dentists to encourage their assistants to participate in the free online training.  “The concepts that we teach in the First Smiles materials will be most beneficial to patients when all members of the dental team are practicing them.  Many of the risk assessment tasks and application of fluoride varnish can be delegated to staff.”

The First Smiles Education and Training Project is the result of a four year, $7 million grant from First 5 California awarded to the CDA Foundation and the Dental Health Foundation. The goal of the project is to significantly reduce the incidence of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in children under five years of age, and those with special health care needs, by providing training to dental and primary care professionals, as well as staff from community agencies that typically serve families with higher risk of oral disease.