Kansas Cavity Free Kids


Helping families raise cavity free kids

Kansas Cavity Free Kids is committed to improving the oral health of pregnant women and young children by creating a network of prenatal and children's oral health services across Kansas. It is funded by Delta Dental Foundation of Kansas and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

Key components of this initiative include:

  • Providing portable equipment and community based dental hygienists to programs that have experienced difficulty in accessing care- Having community based dental hygienists providing preventive treatment and extensive oral health education on site will allow children to feel comfortable and safe, preparing them to be a better dental patient. This also offers a great opportunity to identify problems at their earliest stage and leads to referral to a dentist's care for diagnosis and treatment.
  • Identifying and disseminating a uniform and evidence based curriculum so that children, staff, and parents are all receiving reliable information- Cavity Free Kids curriculum from the Washington Dental Foundation has been selected. Coaching teams will be created in strategic areas across the state. An invitational 2-day workshop will be held April 7-8, 2009 in Salina.
  • Creating a database to gather information that will be valuable in providing further improvements to the oral health system.
  • Assembling an advisory council to aid with sharing information and resources throughout the 0-5 community.
  • The project director will also serve as an oral health resource for all Kansas Head start grantees.

Kansas Cavity Free Kids is providing support and services to the following Head Start programs:

  • Bright Beginnings, Dodge City
  • Clay County Child Care, Clay Center
  • Northwest Kansas Educational Service Center, Oakley
  • NEK/CAP, Hiawatha
  • Opportunity Pre-School, Manhattan
  • Reno County USD 308, Hutchinson
  • SEK/CAP, Coffeyville

Other programs requesting a variety of non clinical support include:

  • ECKAN, Ottawa
  • Hays Head Start, Hays
  • Heartland Programs, Salina
  • Kansas Children's Service League, Garden City
  • McPherson County Head Start, McPherson

KCFK has plans to expand and offer its resources to all early learning programs in Kansas.

For more information, please contact Kathy Hunt at: khunt@ksheadstart.org