The transformative power of volunteerism: Increasing oral health for migrant children—a public health project
Through selflessly offering their skills, time, and resources, individuals undertake a transformative journey that contributes to their fulfillment and the betterment of the communities they serve. Volunteers gain a profound sense of purpose and lasting fulfillment by actively engaging in selfless service. Volunteering is a powerful force that drives positive change, fosters community engagement, and creates a ripple effect of compassion and support.1 Dental hygienist volunteers play a crucial role in addressing societal challenges, improving the well-being of others, and building stronger communities.
Simply increasing awareness of the oral health needs of target populations and how practitioners can meet those needs may be a first simple step to encourage volunteerism for dental hygienists and other oral health professionals. In dental hygiene programs, volunteer opportunities will usually be incorporated into the curriculum in community or public health areas. As a dental hygiene graduate begins to practice clinically, challenges of time and experience may halt the opportunity to volunteer, but there are roles to fit every unique RDH2—many that do not require a major time commitment.
How can hygienists help others?
Volunteering as an individual or as a group of hygienists can be a valuable and rewarding experience. Some examples of volunteer opportunities for dental hygienists to provide oral health-care screenings, preventive care, and oral health education to patients include joining dental hygiene associations in a leadership role, advocating on lobby day, participating in Give Kids A Smile, and lending time for Special Olympics Special Smiles. Even volunteering with an international dental mission can be a unique and life-changing experience. Dental hygienists are highly valued within these programs, because they provide services to help prevent, heal, and educate about certain oral health conditions.3
Community service projects and programs can enhance the awareness of the important role hygienists play in providing dental care, which helps promote our vital role in health care. Being active in the community also helps hygienists on an individual level. The gratification that accompanies giving to others should not be discounted. Volunteerism serves as a catalyst for change by creating a feeling of unification when responding to societal responsibility through compassion.1 When dental hygienists come together to volunteer, they can address issues, uplift marginalized communities, and advocate for positive change in oral and overall health.3
What volunteerism can do for dental hygienists
Volunteerism empowers individuals to find their purpose, to take their passion and turn it into meaningful change for others who need it.2 When each of us, in our own way, answers the call to make a difference as a dental hygienist volunteer, we make progress in solving our most persistent problems as a profession, and in doing so, create healthier communities and a more equitable society. Volunteerism has been shown to offer a plethora of health benefits including the reduction of stress, decreased anxiety, and increased physical activity.3 Giving back provides participants with valuable opportunities to display their leadership skills and make a quantifiable impact on the causes they are passionate about.1 It can improve the lives of volunteers and everyone that their contribution touches.
It’s in our nature
By their nature, dental hygienists are unrelenting in tackling challenges. Education, research, and health care are always about change—transforming patients as they learn, transforming the globe as our inquiries alter our understanding of it, and transforming society as we deliver knowledge and care. The expansion of knowledge means change and the chance to be comfortable with the uncomfortable, explore our options, and discover more about ourselves. In facing the future, dental hygienists must embrace the unsettling change that is fundamental to every advancement in understanding.1
Hygienists must commit to the humility of declaring there is even more to know, more to be taught, and more to understand to bring the hygiene profession to its fullest potential. This
accountability represents a responsibility to serve by volunteering. We must regard ourselves as accountable to the profession, empower one another as dental hygienists, and unite to move the profession forward. Dental hygienists’ role and service in health care needs to be spotlighted to other health-care professionals and the public.
My project to help migrant workers’ children
I wanted to venture into volunteerism by taking on a leadership role in gaining the resources, designing a new program, and implementing it to a target population in need in my state of New Jersey. After filling out a grant application, I was awarded the ADHA Institute for Oral Health (IOH) 2024 Mars Wrigley Foundation’s Healthier Smiles Grant for the program, Increasing Oral Health for Migrant Children in NJ—A Public Health Project. The Mars Wrigley Foundation has a long history of providing grants and donations to give back to the community. This program was a collaboration: Dr. Elisa Velazquez, the New Jersey Hispanic Dental Association (NJHDA), and me.
There are hundreds of migrant workers who help the economy and farming business in New Jersey. They come from other countries legally to perform this hard labor in our country. New Jersey is the fifth leading state in blueberry production with nearly 56 million pounds annually,4 and third in cranberry production with nearly 55 million pounds annually.5 We need seasonal workers to make this happen. Migrant workers perform this work, while their children are here for several months attending early education through the NJ Head Start program.
The children often end up in the emergency room due to dental pain and infection, and this program provides access to preventive care with oral health and nutrition education to prevent costly ER visits. With dental volunteers—especially a need for Spanish-speaking volunteers—screenings will be performed to assess the children’s needs and treatment performed in accordance with those needs. The children will be educated about oral hygiene and proper nutrition as well as provided with educational materials on oral health and nutrition and oral hygiene products to use and take home.
With this grant, additional services of fluoride varnish, prophylaxis, educational materials in Spanish, nutrition education presentations, oral hygiene products, and possibly translators will be provided in the newly updated program. Program goals are to keep children out of the ER, help increase oral health education and nutrition awareness, and arrest early dental caries. Our team of professional volunteers hopes to curb dental disease among children of migrant farmers. These hard-working people help to put food on our tables, and we want to help their families in return with oral health care and nutrition guidance. The families are here legally, and we can help children in our state by collaborating with the NJHDA, dental hygienists, and other dental professionals.
By recognizing the significance of volunteering and supporting those who selflessly give of their time and skills, we can foster a brighter future not only to those we provide dental hygiene services to but for our dental hygiene profession overall. If you or someone you know speaks Spanish and is willing to help during the warmer months next year, please contact me at [email protected].
Editor's note: This article appeared in the October 2024 print edition of RDH magazine. Dental hygienists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.
References
- Belter M. Community catalysts: the power of volunteering and engagement. Mark Belter. August 24, 2023. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.markbelter.org/community-involvement/community-catalysts-the-power-of-volunteering-and-engagement/
- Scherer S. Dental volunteer opportunities for dental hygienists. Colgate-Palmolive Company. June 2, 2017. Accessed May 1, 2024. https://www.colgateprofessional.com/hygienist-resources/dental-education-materials/volunteer-opportunities-dental-hygienists
- Yeung JWK, Zhang Z, Kim TY. Volunteering and health benefits in general adults: cumulative effects and forms. BMC Public Health. 2017;18(1):8. doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4561-8. Erratum in BMC Public Health. 2017;17(1):736 doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4709-6
- New Jersey Department of Agriculture highlights Jersey fresh blueberries. State of New Jersey Department of Agriculture. News release. June 17, 2024. https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/news/press/2024/approved/press240617.html
- New Jersey cranberry statistics 2023. New Jersey cranberry crop at 580,000 barrels. United States Department of Agriculture. 2023. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/New_Jersey/Publications/Cranberry_Statistics/NJ-2023-Cranberry-Summary.pdf
