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School readiness begins with health. A child’s oral health can impact their ability to play, learn, focus, talk and connect with others in the classroom. For this reason, we’ve partnered with Konnect Dental Kare to provide dental screenings, cavity prevention services and oral health education to the children of our Bonanza, Merrill, Town & Country, and Klamath Main sites.

 

About Oral Health

The health of a child’s mouth can affect all aspects of his or her life, inside and outside of the classroom. Children, infants or toddlers with oral health issues or dental pain may:

  • Have a hard time concentrating
  • Miss more days of school or care
  • Develop other serious health conditions, such as infections
  • Stop smiling, cover their mouth with their hands when they speak, or withdraw from family, friends, and teachers if others comment on the appearance of their teeth
  • Have trouble speaking clearly
  • Stop eating because of pain when chewing

 

Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease for children, and is 100% preventable. For this reason, we practice good oral hygiene in every Head Start classroom. Students are given healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, milk and whole-grain products, with limited added sugar. Children also use their very own labeled, child-sized toothbrush to practice healthy brushing habits at school (this practice has been put temporarily on pause for COVID-19 precautions).

 

About Konnect Dental Kare

Konnect Dental Kare is a community-based dental care program. They believes that the roots of good dental hygiene begin growing at a young age, and they focus on giving Klamath communities access to preventative dental care. KDK understands that fitting in appointments among hectic work schedules is hard, so they bring preventative care children at school!

The cavity prevention services provided to Head Start by Konnect include screenings, education, and fluoride and silver diamine fluoride (SDF) for those who are considered moderate to high risk.

 

Thank You Konnect Dental Kare!

This year we are extra grateful that Konnect was able to check the children’s teeth, since we are not able to brush in the classroom due to Covid-19. Their services help us ensure that students are healthy, happy, smiling, and ready to learn. Thank you Konnect Dental Kare!