OHA, Plackers announce five winners of Smiles Across America Innovation Grants

Plackers, makers of the first disposable dental flosser, and Oral Health America (OHA), a national, charitable non-profit, announced five winners of the first-ever Smiles Across America Innovation Grants, each of whom will receive monetary grants to kick-start innovative new programs intended to deliver oral health preventative products and services to children at increased risk for oral diseases.

Among numerous proposals received from OHA's sizable network of Smiles Across America Product Donation Partners, five dental care service providers and academic institutions throughout the United States were specially selected based on originality, creativity and for the ability of their ideas to be implemented by other dental health care professionals throughout the community. To help the winners kick-off their innovative programs, each of the following organizations will receive a monetary grant along with a generous supply of dental flossers, compliments of Plackers:

• Athens City County Health Department's School Based Dental Sealant Program, Athens, OH
• Dakota Smiles Mobile Dental Program, Pierre, SD
• City of Portland's Children's Oral Health Program, Portland, ME
• Santa Barbara/Ventura County Dental Care Foundation, Ventura, CA
• University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, Daniel Squire Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Buffalo, NY

To apply for the grants, OHA's Smiles Across America Product Donation Partners submitted ideas outlining new projects or initiatives that would help expand oral health outreach programs in their respective local communities. The scope of program submissions ranged from providing dental students with nutrition and oral health education materials to increasing preventive services awareness and education among children.

"All of the winning programs share the mission of providing at-risk children and families with better access to preventive oral health services and education," said Beth Truett, Oral Health America's President and CEO. "Plackers' support for these new grants has been instrumental and we look forward to seeing our SAA Product Donation Partners implement these unique new projects in their local communities."