NSU receives $75,000 grant to provide free dental services to 400 North Miami Beach elementary schoolchildren

FT. LAUDERDALE-DAVIE, Fla. — During the current school year, underserved and uninsured elementary school students in the North Miami Beach area will receive preventive dental services from Nova Southeastern University.

NSU’s College of Dental Medicine (NSU-CDM) recently announced that it will use a $75,000 grant from the Dr. John. T. Macdonald Foundation Inc. to provide dental services such as comprehensive oral examinations, cleanings, fluoride application, sealants and oral hygiene instruction to the uninsured students of three participating elementary schools in North Miami Beach beginning this Fall.

Many of these schoolchildren are at risk for dental caries or tooth decay. This condition affects low-income and disadvantaged children significantly more than their affluent cohorts. More than 50 percent of children without health insurance had not seen a dentist in the past year and more than one in five needed dental care but did not receive it for financial reasons, according to NSU’s College of Dental Medicine.

If left untreated, dental caries may lead to problems in eating, speaking and sleeping. Poor oral health among children has been tied to lower performance in school and poor social relationships. Children with early childhood dental pain often weigh less than other children.

“This important grant will help us reduce the risk of dental caries, which is the single most common childhood disease,” said Stephen Abel, D.D.S., Executive Associate Dean of NSU’s College of Dental Medicine (CDM). “Dental decay can be prevented or significantly minimized through these important services supported by the John T. Macdonald Foundation and carried out by our dental staff at NSU-CDM. The grant allows us to treat more children by offering more dental services.  And with this year’s generous grant, we will be able to provide more services to a greater number of children than in previous years.”

NSU plans to begin providing the dental services this fall and continue throughout the school year. The NSU-CDM program is designed to provide the children from select Dade County elementary schools with oral health services at NSU’s North Miami Beach Dental Clinic.

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About The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, Inc: The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, Inc. is a private grant-making foundation, supporting projects and programs designed to improve, preserve or restore the health and health care of the people in Miami-Dade County. For more information or a grant application, please contact Mrs. Kim Greene, Executive Director, 1550 Madruga Avenue, Suite 215, Coral Gables, FL 33146, (305) 667-6017, website: www.jtmacdonaldfdn.org.

About NSU College of Dental Medicine: Students of the college benefit from our state-of-the-art educational and clinical facilities, which feature the latest in computer and video technology, and from our distinguished professors, recruited from throughout the United States. The college’s facilities, faculty, and dynamic curriculum have attracted worldwide attention. Students and professionals have come from very diverse backgrounds to pursue their courses of study at the college, but outstanding instruction and advanced technology are only means to an end. http://dental.nova.edu/

About Nova Southeastern University: Situated on 300 beautiful acres in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Nova Southeastern University is a dynamic fully accredited institution dedicated to providing high-quality educational programs of distinction from preschool through the professional and doctoral levels. NSU has more than 28,000 students and is the eighth largest not-for-profit independent institution nationally. The university awards associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, doctoral, and first-professional degrees in a wide range of fields, including business, counseling, computer and information sciences, education, medicine, optometry, pharmacy, dentistry, various health professions, law, marine sciences, early childhood, psychology and other social sciences. For more information visit www.nova.edu.

Media Contact:
Ken Ma, MBA, NSU Office of Public Affairs
954-262-5408 (office), 954-621-7961 (cell), ken.ma@nova.edu