My first community service duty in the Dental Hygiene Program was at the Health Fair at Beaumont in September 2014. I spent five hours helping second year students bring older and younger people to our booth so that they could have a screening by a registered dental hygienist and become educated on their oral health and hopefully proceed to make a dental appointment. In October of 2014 I attended the Bingham Elementary Fluoride Program. For three and a half hours I was able to place fluoride on the children, and educate them on how important fluoride is to their primary teeth.
My second semester of the Dental Hygiene Program I attended the Bingham Elementary Fluoride Program for the second time for another three and a half hours re-teaching the children about the importance of fluoride. I also had the opportunity to teach children at Hamshire Fannett Elementary about the importance of oral health. My last community service opportunity of my last semester as a first year student was being able to help set up booths, and attending Relay for Life. We helped all of the venders and volunteers set up their booths inside the PNG gymnasium and walked for the fight against cancer in April of 2015. In my first semester as a second year student I attended the Health Fair in beaumont for the second time. We spent our time helping helping the office that volunteered bring older and younger people to our booth so that they could have a screening by a registered dental hygienist and become educated on their oral health and hopefully proceed to make a dental appointment. As for my last semester as a dental hygiene student I attended the Lake Charles Color Run and taught children about oral health at Orangefield Elementary. At Orangefield Elementary school we showed a class of second grade children a video about plaque and cavities that demonstrated to them the proper way to brush and floss and why it is important. Afterwards we went to each table and let the children demonstrate the correct way to brush for us on the puppet. Next we set up Lego blocks with play dough in between for them to floss out, while we explained why flossing is so important along with brushing. Lastly we had the children tell us what foods go on the "happy" tooth and "sad" tooth we had for them at the front of the classroom. To finish off our visit we played nutritious bingo with the children. We were at the school for 2.5 hours. A classmate and I also helped set up for events at the Health and Wellness Center during the Shields & Axes tournament, where the firemen have a friendly competition against the police department. We were at the Health and Wellness Center for 4 hours. My last community service of my second year of being a hygiene student was Relay for life in Nederland, where I helped set up a booth and helped pick up survivors and bring them to the walk. I was at Relay for life for 2 hours. While volunteering I learned that I love my future career. I enjoy teaching the community about dental hygiene and how they can improve their overall oral heath. Volunteering is helping me learn that not everyone has the resources and knowledge of dental hygiene care. Which makes volunteering to help educate the community that more important. |