Healthy Smiles For Autism
BALTIMORE, MD
(September 16, 2011)—The National Museum of Dentistry has created a new
resource to help parents of children with autism spectrum disorder
succeed in teaching good oral healthcare. Healthy Smiles for Autism
is a guide that helps parents teach children with autism spectrum
disorder how to brush and floss with the help of step-by-step
instruction, social stories, and visual sequencing cards that can be
used wherever brushing happens. This guide is free and downloadable at www.healthysmilesforautism.org.
The Healthy Smiles for Autism
guide was created to empower parents of children with autism spectrum
disorder with usable tools to help effectively teach their children an
oral health routine. The guide also provides information to help parents
prepare their children for a first dental visit.
“We
want to be able to give parents readily usable tools to help their
children to develop a good oral hygiene regimen,” said National Museum
of Dentistry Executive Director Jonathan Landers. “We’ve combined best
practices for autism education, such as visual sequencing cards and
rewards systems, with proven personal oral hygiene techniques to help
make the process a little bit easier.”
The
National Museum of Dentistry partnered with Kennedy Krieger Institute’s
Center for Autism and Related Disorders and University of Maryland
Dental School to develop these best practices to oral health care for
children with autism spectrum disorder.
Autism
is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the
first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate
and interact with others – including the dentist. Dental care is the
leading unmet healthcare need among children with special needs, and
across all income levels, children with special needs are almost twice
as likely to have an unmet oral heath care need than their peers without
special needs, according to the National Maternal and Child Oral Health
Resource Center.
The National Museum of Dentistry, an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, develops
unique learning opportunities to engage the public in discovering how
to have a healthy mouth for life. Also available free to the public is
the MouthPower.org website that teaches good oral health skills to children, and the GetMouthPower.org that reveals the special oral health care needs of adults 50+.
The
Healthy Smiles for Autism guide is made possible by the support of
Henry Schein Cares, the Global Corporate Social Responsibility program
of Henry Schein, Inc., Blakeslee Advertising, and a generous gift from
Dr. Irwin and Lucia Smigel.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DENTISTRY
See
amazing teeth feats, marvel at George Washington’s choppers, sing along
to vintage toothpaste commercials, and discover fascinating hands-on
exhibitions about the power of a healthy smile. Enjoy field trips, home
school days, special events, and more. An Affiliate of the Smithsonian
Institution, this one-of-a-kind museum is located at 31 South Greene
Street, a short walk from the Inner Harbor. Admission is $7 for adults,
$5 for seniors, and students with ID, $3 for children age 3-19; and free
for age 2 & under and active duty military & immediate family.
Open Wednesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–4 p.m. and Sunday 1–4 p.m. Closed
Mondays, Tuesdays, and major holidays. Call 410/706-0600 or visit www.smile-experience.org.
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