Open Wide

Oral disease is the most common chronic condition during childhood and is often cited as a reason for children’s poor performance in or absence from school. Since a child’s oral health is usually assessed at a dentist’s office, a lack of access to dental care in low-income and minority populations often results in undiagnosed oral disease.

Open Wide trains non-dental and human service providers to: 1) understand the importance of oral health in early childhood development, 2) integrate oral health into existing health systems, 3) recognize oral disease, 4) teach disease prevention and offer dental referrals, 5) positively impact overall health through improving oral health. Providers are given a standardized curriculum and additional materials such as fact sheets, resources, slides, and a DVD.

Open Wide is funded through the State of Connecticut and two private health foundations.

The goal of the program is to train non-dental health and childcare professionals in dental disease screening and dental referrals for children.

The Office of Oral Health receives about 75 calls per year about Open Wide. The program has been adapted by various agencies in the state of Connecticut, such as the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut and Connecticut Department of Social Services. The curriculum is used by dental hygiene programs in educating providers who work with underserved populations such as WIC and Head Start.

As of 2004, the program has been adapted by the National Maternal and Child Health Oral Health Resource Center and is available online. From February 2007 to March 2009, over 30,000 people completed the modules online.