Teeny Boppers & Biofilm

Heidi, Jill, Amy & Mrs. Goodwin's 8th grade classes

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For my dental hygiene school, my friends Jill, Heidi, & me designed a community health project for one of our classes. We designed our project to increase awareness and educate adolescents on the importance of oral health care. We felt like they would be a good age group to target, so that they could start good habits young. We also educated them on various factors that affect them like nutrition, tabacco use, oral piercings, eating disorders, etc.

It was a really fun, but exhausting project, it had to be at least 30 hours. We taught two 8th grade classes at Orem Jr. High in Mrs. Goodwin's Health class period. Both classes were a fun but roudy bunch! We did two visits to both classes. The first visit we gave them a pre-test dental knowledge exam, biofilm index (have them chew up a tablet that dye's their plaque pink, and you record a score for how much plaque they have), gave them a lesson, had posters, visuals, and a fun game. The second visit we wanted to see how much they learned! haha. So we gave them the same test to see how much they took in from our lesson, and we re-disclosed the students again to see if they were brushing any better. The results were actually pretty good, and there was an overall improvement. It's nice to think that all the work you did, really did get through to some people. I am going to enjoy being a hygienist, but I don't think I could ever be an 8th grade teacher!