Broome Community College students have spent the last year working with the Health for Haiti School-based Dental Sealant program to provide dental hygiene services to children in Haiti.
Students in the SUNY Broome Dental Hygiene Club, overseen by Professor Maureen Hankin, provided the same outstanding and high quality dental hygiene services in Haiti that they provide in the state-of-the-art dental hygiene clinic at SUNY Broome. To achieve their goals, more than $67,576 of dental hygiene services were donated to the club, which empowered the students to attend to more than 200 children in Haiti.
All of the 216 children received an exam, oral hygiene instructions, dental sealants and a fluoride varnish. The dental hygiene students applied more than 1,750 dental sealants to children’s permanent teeth, and used silver diamine fluoride to arrest severe decay on permanent teeth that needed restorative treatment where access to care is limited.
For their phenomenal work, SUNY Broome was chosen out of 335 student chapters throughout the United States to receive the 2019 American Dental Hygiene Association’s (ADHA) Student Member Community Service Award. The prize includes $3,000 cash, an engraved award, and recognition in Access Magazine, ADHA’s official publication. The monetary award will be used for future Health for Haiti oral care efforts. The award was presented at the ADHA Annual Conference in June of 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Across SUNY, students, faculty and administration alike are coming together to in the spirit of charity and togetherness. 30 Days of Giving is our annual tradition, which starts on Thanksgiving every year, where we reflect on efforts of the past year and highlight some of the selfless acts of that members of the SUNY community are leading. Stay tuned for more.
