Oral Health Educator
The Oral Health Educator will provide the main link between families, the dental team, dentist, dental hygienist, visiting health teams, and staff in the nursery settings and primary school establishments. The Beausoleil Dental Clinic is located in the west wing of the Beausoleil Family Health Centre and has been in service since August 2009.
The Oral Health Educator is aimed at taking a proactive role in the Childrens Oral Health Initiative Program (Health Canada) and will act as a Childrens Oral Health Initiative Aide. COHI is a service provided to on-reserve First Nations children and Inuit children to help them establish and maintain healthy teeth and gums.
COHI provides dental services to children from birth to seven, and provides information to their parents/caregivers, and expectant parents which will help their children build and maintain healthy smiles right from the start. COHIs main aim is focused on early prevention which in return will lead to healthy smiles and ultimately, better health throughout your child/childrens lives.
Essential Roles and Responsibilities
- Educate parents on oral health issues such as the importance of primary teeth, first dental visits by first birthday
- Educate children about proper oral hygiene, importance of dental check-up, importance of teeth, how they can get cavities and how to prevent them
- Conduct health promotion activities for the community
- Conduct seminars to educate the preschool and elementary teachers which may help them empower the children to take responsibility for their own health
- Apply Fluoride Varnishes on young children after they have been screened and assessed by a Registered Dental Hygienist
- Follow-up assessments to see whether improvement in oral health knowledge is still maintained and to determine whether the change in knowledge of the preschooler teacher has an impact on attitude and practice of the preschool children
- Conduct parent information workshops for the COHI Program
- Schedule appointments for 2 Dental Days & 3 hygiene days per month
- Make outside referral for dental patients for Orthodontic, Pediatric, and Denturist
- Communicate with professionals outside of organization, representing the organization to the community, the public, government, and the other external sources
- Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational training of classes, and teaching or instructing others
- Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, by telephone, in written form, e-mail or in person
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