Dental museum receives grants from ADA, DentaQuest

The National Museum of Dentistry has received a Give Kids A Smile Champion grant from the ADA Foundation to enhance children's oral health, particularly those from low-income families.

An additional award was given by the DentaQuest Foundation to help provide every first grader in Baltimore City public schools with educational resources to ensure good oral health practices.

The museum will be taking its signature oral health education program -- MouthPower -- into the Baltimore City schools. The program explores how to brush and floss, why to say no to tobacco, and how to make healthy food choices.

The museum will distribute MouthPower oral health kits, including tip posters and educational CD-ROMs, to every first-grade classroom, as well as tip cards about how to brush and floss to 6,500 students.

The program will also provide toothbrushes and toothpaste for the children and offer subsidized field trips to the museum for first-grade classes.

"Unfortunately, many Baltimore City students -- who are most in need of our programs -- cannot afford to access them," said the museum's executive director, Jonathan Landers, in a press release. "These grants will help provide every 1st grade teacher and student with oral health education resources in their classroom and an opportunity for the most 'in-need' first grade classes to visit the museum without charge."