Customer Spotlight

Tooth decay is one of the most common chronic childhood diseases and one of the top reasons children visit school nurses. More than 51 million school hours are lost each year due to dental-related illness.

The Children’s Oral Health Coalition (COHC), led by Cook Children’s Community Health Outreach department, works to improve the oral health of children in Tarrant County, especially underserved children. Organized in 1999, the COHC is a diverse, county-wide collaboration of 35 local organizations. The COHC promotes awareness of children’s oral health issues and supports prevention of oral health disease. Kohl’s has joined COHC as a funding sponsor.

The Children’s Oral Health Coalition:

• Seeks to improve the oral health of children in Tarrant County from birth to third grade.
• Developed and manages Train the Trainer events to educate community professionals so they can train parents in underserved families on preventive oral health care for children ages 0-4 years.
• Hosts Drive for a Smile, an annual toothbrush drive to collect toothbrushes for at-risk families in our area and to promote children’s oral health awareness.
• Conducts legislative visits to state senators and representatives to advocate for children’s oral health needs and increased access to care.
• Works to raise community awareness of dental needs for at-risk children.

COHC member organizations screened 40,367 children in targeted elementary schools during the 2008-2009 school year. In the 109 schools screened, it was discovered that more than 1,200 children had severe, untreated oral health disease.

Community need
The COHC surveyed local dentists, school nurse administrators and low income families in 2002, 2005 and 2008 to gather information and get their opinions on the state of oral health for disadvantaged children in Tarrant County. The results are shown in the following graph.

Awards and accomplishments
The Train the Trainer program is a past recipient of the Texas Dental Association Certificate of Merit.
Since 2003, coalition members have provided more than 150,000 dental screenings and the COHC has distributed:

• 46,000 toothbrushes
• 32,000 tubes of toothpaste
• 47,000 brochures that list low-cost dental clinics in Tarrant County for underserved families

“With the increase in soda consumption among today’s children, the number of oral health issues that are discovered on routine exams has increased significantly. Most of the patients I see have no access to a dental professional. If it wasn’t for the Children’s Oral Health Coalition, many of the children I see would never get the medical/dental help they need. Good oral health is a major issue for these children staying in school.” - Frank Sloan, M.D., Cook Children’s Health Care System

Donations are greatly appreciated and allow us to do more outreach in the community. For more information, please contact Becki Hale, Children’s Oral Health Coalition coordinator at 682-885-6730, or send an email torebecca.hale@cookchildrens.org