Summer school for these kids means lessons in dentistry

Published on Monday, June 12, 2023

By: Ruth Cummins

Photos By: Melanie Thortis/ UMMC Communications

Much like mixing two colors of putty, Kaitlyn Mayes took a marble-sized blob of white and blob of blue and repeatedly squished them together with her fingers.

“Is it an even color? Not yet? Just be patient,” encouraged Dr. Susana Salazar Marocho, an assistant professor of biomedical materials science in the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Dentistry.

“Make it like a ball,” she instructed Kaitlyn and other middle-schoolers filling one of the school’s laboratories. “You’re going to put it on the top of the tooth you were given, and you’re going to press it. I don’t want any of the tooth exposed. All of it needs to be covered by the impression material.

“Three, two, one … GO!”

Dental impressions of teeth are used to make crowns, dentures and retainers, among other uses in oral health care.  Faculty and students made that exercise and others fun for 30 kids attending the first S.M.I.L.E. U at the School of Dentistry. The goal: Inspire them to explore dentistry, and to think ahead about the education they’ll need to become an oral health provider.

Short for Shaping Minds to Inspire, Lead and Explore, S.M.I.L.E. U is the creation of Dr. Kristin Nalls, assistant dean for community and lead director of admissions, and Dr. Alexa Lampkin, assistant professor and a director of admissions. It targets rising sixth- through eighth-graders who either live in rural areas, are the child of a first-generation high school or college graduate, or who are from an underrepresented minority group in dentistry.

More than 200 children applied for the program’s 30 slots.

“This is an idea that Dr. Lampkin and I had as an effort to create a diverse and qualified applicant pool for the School of Dentistry representing the state of Mississippi,” Nalls said.

Lampkin speaks from experience – and from the heart – about the need for S.M.I.L.E. U.

“I wanted to be a dentist, but I didn’t have anyone to tell me how to get there,” she said. “This is something I wish I’d had as a kid.”

Children eagerly joined in hands-on activities offered during the June 5-9 program, and they listened to talks from faculty and students that broke down what dentistry and public health look like in real life.

And, they learned how to practice financial literacy through budgeting and saving, just like they’ll need to do in whatever career they choose.

“I’ve learned about your teeth and how there are different kinds, and I’ve learned how to organize your money as you go,” said Kaitlyn, 10, a Northwest Jackson Middle School sixth-grader.

“I thought it would be a fun experience, and I could get an education on being a dentist and what they do,” Hanna Winfrey said of why she enrolled in S.M.I.L.E. U.

“I learned about things that dental hygienists have to do, and how to do a sealant. I learned how to make a duplicate of a tooth,” said Hanna, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Byram Middle School.

“We wanted to target a group of kids who haven’t been exposed to dentistry as a career,” said Dr. Elizabeth Carr, professor and chair of the Department of Dental Hygiene. “We want them to see how interesting, hands-on and fun it can be, and we want to pique their interest in a career they might not have considered.

“We want rural kids to become dental providers and move back to their small communities,” Carr said.

Sixth-grader Andre Florez, 10, said he’s planning to be an engineer, but after S.M.I.L.E. U, “I might change my mind.

“I learned that I can make replicas of teeth with basic steps,” Andre said. “It turned out to be really easy.”

Students got a glimpse of dental research and how it applies to working in a laboratory, and they saw how that translates into going to the dentist. They practiced what’s called “indirect vision” in which they looked in a mirror, then traced what they saw.

“They see what it’s like not to look at something directly, but through a mirror,” much like the mirrored instrument used by a dental hygienist to view and examine teeth, Carr said.

Laura Alberto, a biomedical materials science doctoral student in the School for Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences, led students through an exercise in brainstorming how dental implants work by comparing them with implants in other parts of the body.

“What do they have in common?” Alberto said.

“They all go inside your body,” answered London Mills, 13, an eighth-grader at Bailey APAC Middle School.

“What would be the definition of an implant?” Alberto asked as she let students hold plastic bones outfitted with implants.

“Something that replaces something, and it won’t come back out,” said Journi Garvis, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Madison Middle School.

The students had ready answers when Alberto asked for examples of what body parts can receive an implant. “Teeth! Lips!” they shouted.

Students also were certified in CPR by dental hygiene faculty. Their other lessons included dissolving faux medications in water to see what coatings on them affect their release and delivery in the body.

Carr hopes exposure to oral health care will inspire more male students to choose dental hygiene as a career. “We’re interested to see what the return is on this,” she said. “What will this look like in nine years? Will we see these faces again?

“Even though our dental hygiene class is 97 percent female, there are more men entering the dental hygiene field,” Carr said. “The quicker we can expose them to this, the quicker they can get a love for the before and after – for example, a dirty mouth versus a clean mouth, and how gratifying it is to help a patient.”

Said Nalls: “It’s a dream come to fruition - that we can provide an experience for young scholars who may not have ever had the opportunity to speak with dental professionals, and see first-hand what the job entails.

“We hope that this is the first cohort of many that we expose to dentistry, and impact our mission to develop a workforce that represents our state on all levels.”

For information, send an email to smileu@umc.edu