Welcome
Welcome to Healthy Smiles through Child Care Health Consultation: A Distance Learning Course. This course is designed for child care health consultants and consists of six sections that present information relevant to children’s oral heath on the following topics: tooth development, major oral diseases, prevention strategies, access to dental care, techniques for oral health promotion, and oral health for children with special health care needs.
The purpose of the Healthy Smiles curriculum is to promote behaviors in the child care setting that support the oral health of children. This training is intended to be viewed by child care health consultants (CCHCs) who will then assist child care facilities in improving their oral health practices and policies.
Overall Objectives
After completing this course, the child care health consultant (CCHC) should be able to:
- Explain oral health developmental stages, children’s oral diseases, and disease prevention strategies
- Educate and assist child care facility directors and staff on children’s oral health
- Describe a dental home and how to refer children there
- Explain how to access local and state oral health resources
Course Overview
The course consists of 6 sections that are intended to be viewed in sequential order. Each section has a set of learning objectives, content related to the section topic, and a series of learning activities to test your knowledge after completing the section. The learning activities are not scored and you may review the content of the section as many times as you like before completing the activities and moving on to a new section. Although individual paces will vary, the total time needed to complete the course is approximately 2 hours.
Healthy Smiles is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Grant # T21MC03417).
Healthy Smiles is a project of the National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants (NTI). NTI is a cooperative undertaking of the School of Public Health’s Department of Maternal and Child Health and the FPG Child Development Institute (FPG), both of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. NTI is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Grant #U46MC00003).