GRANT00003

Support to the A.T. Still University-Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ATSU-ASDOH) to harness mobile phone technology to optimize systems to promote overall health by improving oral health literacy. This project, entitled "Text2Floss: An Innovative Option to Improve Oral Health Behavior," mobilizes a unique combination of collaborators, including a public health-focused dental school, San Ysidro Health Center (SYHC)--a San Diego-based Federally Qualified Health Center that serves as a clinical partner for ASDOH, Pan American Health Organization, American Dental Hygienists' Association, and corporate partners. ATSU-ASDOH embraces DentaQuest's philosophy of affecting oral health systems at the grass roots and grass tops levels and will create movement toward the Community descriptor (i.e., strong community prevention and care infrastructure, provider base representative of community, and optimal oral health literacy). This project is the second of a multi-phase initiative that moves beyond the initial 7-day, 2-way messaging Text2Floss program designed to raise awareness about the importance of oral health and introduce flossing as key part of daily hygiene. In the 12-month grant period, ASDOH, in cooperation with SYHC, will ensure development and pilot test of: 1) a Text2Floss-Dentrix Enterprise interface for chair side enrollment in the 7-day Text2Floss messaging program (target of 500 patients) and 2) a bilingual iPhone oral health app (target of 100 patient downloads). Across all objectives, ASDOH will nurture relationships with its collaborators to extend the project's long-term reach throughout the School's 65+ community-based clinical training sites nationwide, the dental and dental hygiene professions, and global health sphere.