Tickles’ The Toothbrush Celebrates Give Kids A Smile Day!

 On Thursday, February 20, 2003, from 4pm-7pm, Art Angels, a Healing Arts Program of The Museum Of Cultural Arts Houston (MOCAH), will present the healing arts exhibit, Tickles’ Traveling Toothbrush Show in celebration of Give Kids A Smile Day and National Children’s Dental Health Month at The John P. McGovern Museum Of Health And Medical Science, located at 1515 Hermann Dr.  Sponsored in part by the Greater Houston Dental Society (GHDS), the American Dental Association and Proctor and Gamble, this celebration is free to the public and will allow participants to creatively explore children’s dental health awareness.  Families will enjoy hands on arts-in-dentistry activities and 3 live performances of ‘Tickles’ Dental Visit, a hip-hop musical that teaches children about the importance of regular dental visits. Participants will also receive free community health information, resources, preventive education, fun dental health give-a-ways, free pediatric dental screenings and referrals for free dental treatment needed, courtesy of Greater Houston Dental Society Members and University Of Texas Health Science Center, Dental Branch.   Certificates and prizes will also be awarded for HISD’s Annual Dental Health Poster Contest 2003. Over 200-300 students will have an opportunity to view the winning posters on exhibition at the museum throughout the entire month of February. To encourage community participation, event invitations will be issued to over 2,500 students at Douglas, Dodson, JW Jones, Blackshear and Mac Arthur Elementary Schools.  

Over 51 million school hours are lost each year due to dental related illnesses.  Recent studies conducted by the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services suggest that one of the major problems for this is the lack of collaborative efforts among dental public resources to integrate a comprehensive oral health education program.  By offering preventive education, we can help control the incidents of childhood dental disease.  The Members of the Greater Houston Dental Society are committed to helping resolve the access to dental care problem. “Our goal for Give Kids A Smile Day is to provide free oral health care information and services to children from low income families.”, says GHDS President and pediatric dentist, Dr. Rita Cammarata. 

The Art Angels Healing Arts Program mission is to promote individual and social health awareness to support groups, healthcare facilities and schools throughout Houston. Tickles’ Traveling Toothbrush Show is a unique arts-in-dentistry project that focuses on using art as a tool to creatively teach children about the importance of proper dental health care and the consequences of neglect.    This community arts-in-dentistry project is based on a cast of characters created from 'dental office personalities'.  Tickles The Toothbrush is the star of the show and he is joined by  Dr. Giggles the Dentist, Happy Hygienist, Flossy Floss and Sticky- Icky -Plaque & The Sugar Bug Gang.  These characters creatively present dental health lessons combining different art mediums such as performing arts using song, dance, interactive role-play, and hands-on art projects using items and materials commonly associated with the dental office.  

 ‘Our goal during this years’ tour is to reach at least 10,000 young smiles as Tickles’ The Toothbrush and his crew travel across Houston to creatively teach and expose families to dental health prevention resources’, says program director and registered dental hygienist, Rhonda Radford Adams.  The 2003 Give Kids A Smile Day is an example of how community partnerships can effectively provide solutions to children’s dental health needs. 

This project has been made possible through the generous contributions of The Greater Houston Dental Society and the American Dental Association Foundation.  For additional information please visit us at http://www.mocah.org or contact Rhonda Adams at 713.864.2780.

To read more about Tickles D. Toothbrush click here

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