Kans. group wins $400K oral health research grant

A University of Kansas (KU) School of Medicine - Wichita researcher has been awarded a two-year, $398,500 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for community-based participatory research to explore oral health and insurance issues among uninsured children.

The grant will allow Judy Johnston, a preventive medicine and public health research instructor, and her team at the medical school to examine the barriers uninsured children in Sedgwick County encounter when trying to obtain preventive and/or restorative dental care. Working in conjunction with the Wichita Sedgwick County Oral Health Coalition (WSCOHC) and the Wichita Dental Society, they will also explore possible solutions to overcoming those barriers.

For the past four years, the KU School of Medicine in Wichita and the WSCOHC have hosted a one-day Give Kids A Smile clinic every March. During the one-day event, some 200 children receive free dental work with an estimated value of more than $90,000.

The NIH grant will allow Johnston and her team to track the children who received care at these clinics, according to the university.

Once data are collected through parent interviews, focus groups, and dentist surveys, Johnston and the WSCOHC will provide information to community partners, including the Wichita Dental Society and Visioneering Wichita. The community-based research team hopes to create change in policy and practice as a result.