IU Dental School Gets Grant to Treat Low-Income Children

Indiana University School of Dentistry pediatric dentist Dr. Judith Chin is the principal investigator on a grant that will be used by the school's Department of Pediatric Dentistry to provide comprehensive oral health services to economically disadvantaged children.

The $35,000 grant is one of 14 that the National Children's Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF) recently awarded to not-for-profit community, university, and hospital-based dental programs nationwide, according to the News Center at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, where the IU school is located.

During the six-month clinical project, the children will be treated by students in the dental school's Pediatric Dentistry department. Equally important to the treatment, says Chin, is the patient education component of the program that will underscore the critical importance of practicing good oral hygiene in the home.

The NCOHF was created in 2006 in response to the growing need to provide disadvantaged families with access to the community-based programs for underserved children that deliver the best approaches to optimizing oral health, enhancing self-esteem, reducing student absenteeism, and significantly enhancing quality of life and family productivity.