Seals on Wheels sponsors a Dental Health Advisory Board for Orange County. The goal of the board is to improve the oral health of Orange County’s children. Throughout the years, we have developed a very cohesive board linking the schools, dentists, County representatives, parents, and other nonprofits. Numerous projects have evolved from this union including the creation of the “Together As One” program, as well as the standardization of forms for collecting the very important dental data for studies, such as the Condition of Children Report for Orange County.

We continue to work in close collaboration with Ayuda (an international nonprofit mobile dental program), assisting Dr. Done with six Saturday dental clinics annually. Seals on Wheels continues to place sealants at the Ayuda clinics. Our team also instructs the dental students in proper sealant placement. Bilingual Dental health educator, Rosa Sanchez, continues to present the Parent Education component at the Ayuda clinics.

A parent education component, funded through a partnership with the Orange County Health Care Agency’s Nutrition Services, is offered to all school sites. All presentations are offered in English and Spanish. Funding for this component is made available through the Federal Nutrition Network Grant.
 

Our staff participate in various community health fairs. Our educators continue to be involved in a local collaborative at their schools to improve access to dental care for the students. We continue to partner with Healthy Smiles to assist with their Smile Days (dental health fairs provided at the schools and community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc.). We are also represented at the Department of Education School Nurse Conference.

Over 4,000 Head Start and state Preschool students are enrolled in the CCDDPP program. All teachers attend an in-service about basic oral health and fluoride prior to distributing fluoride to their students. This program is running smoothly at all sites. A dental screening component was added to five Santa Ana Preschool sites as a pilot.