The Panther Press is a Santa Barbara after-school group at Peabody Charter School that acts as journalists for the school newsletter and participates in creative arts. Dana Sadan, organizer of the Peabody Panthers, heard about a contest that would help fund school programs, as well as award the students prizes while celebrating National Children’s Dental Health Month.
Santa Barbara pediatric dentists Robert Ruby and Yvonne Rochon announced their first-ever drawing and essay contest on Feb. 1 in honor of National Children’s Dental Health Month. Each grade had the opportunity to participate in the contest, which was designed to raise awareness about the importance of oral health through regular dental check-ups and healthy eating.
The dynamic dentist duo arrived at Peabody Charter School early this week to award a cash donation to the school of $500 along with gift certificates to the winner of the K-3 poster contest — Hunter Gommersall — and winners of the grades four-to-six essay contest — Cate Clancy and Allie Jones — who teamed up to write the winning essay on Xylitol and healthy eating.
The winning essay, written by contest winners Cate Clancy and Allie Jones, focused on the importance of Xylitol and ended with a mention of picture day — a very important day to look good for all Peabody students.
The essay began, “It’s important to brush and floss your teeth because you want your smile to look fantastic, so you don’t get cavities, and when you floss you can get icky food out of your gums so you don’t get gingivitis (a gum disease). It’s always good to have a great smile for school picture day.” It concluded: “We hope we convinced you to take care of teeth and have a great, brilliant, vibrant smile for picture day.”
“We’re here to transform a visit to the dentist to one of the coolest things to do in town,” Rochon said. “Children’s developing teeth are meant to last a lifetime, and a healthy smile is important to a child’s self-esteem. With proper care, a balanced diet and regular dental visits, their teeth can remain healthy and strong. It’s important to us to inspire kids with contests or by sponsoring community events.”
When asked what the girls think the school should use the donation for, they suggested they could use it to get more grass on the field, hire more teachers and “reduce budget cuts.” The two girls also received gift certificates to Borders, and their essay will be published on the Web site of Drs. Ruby and Rochon and be submitted for inclusion in next year’s essay examples for National Children’s Dental Health Month.
Eight-year-old Gommersall emphasized “Brush Your Teeth and Eat Healthy” in his fun and creative drawing. His father noted that Gommersall draws up to 10 pictures a day and is extremely creative.
“Hunter loves anything that is creative — drawing, listening to music and even owns an electric guitar. His current fad is to create clay characters out of modeling clay and eventually will create a clay animation (claymation),” his father said. “He just finished reading Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener by Ursula Vernon, so he might buy the other two in the series with the Borders gift certificate he received from Drs. Ruby and Rochon.”
Gommersall ’s award-winning drawing received a $250 donation to Peabody Charter School to use in whatever way the school deems best. Ruby and Rochon intend to create bookmarks out of this winning poster and are planning an exhibit for later this year featuring all of the entries that were submitted this year.
By participating in the annual celebration of National Children’s Dental Health Month, children, students, parents and teachers and others can help keep children’s smiles beautiful now and for years to come. Click here for more information about the other extraordinary entries received.
Winning Essay for National Children’s Dental Health Month
Written by Cate Clancy and Allie Jones
It’s important to brush and floss your teeth because you want your smile to look fantastic, so you don’t get cavities, and when you floss you can get icky food out of your gums so you don’t get gingivitis (a gum disease). It’s always good to have a great smile for school picture day.
You always have a good smile if you brush your teeth so you won’t get cavities. Cavities are bacteria that hollow out your teeth, but if you floss every day you will keep the cavities away. Fact: Scientists have proven that if you floss your teeth every day you will live 10 years longer. Flossing is as important as brushing your teeth. With experience, we both don’t have cavities.
Zylitol is a substance that is similar to sugar but is better for you and your teeth. It is said that if you use Zylitol in your diet you are less likely to get an ear infection. You can use Zylitol in many numerous ways, including putting it on cinnamon toast, chewing Zylitol gum and mints, and you can put it in tea instead of honey to make it sweeter and healthier for you. You can also use it in toothpaste that you can buy from www.Epicdental.com.
When we were younger our moms would tell us that little bugs would crawl into our mouths and hatch cavities. The cavities would grow and grow until you had to go to the dentist, and numb your gum. They did that so it wouldn’t hurt that bad. When you have a cavity it will make you feel crotchety, and where the cavity is your tooth will turn brown.
Every six months we advise you to get a check-up from your dentist. At the check-up you might get fluoride, teeth cleaned, X-rays or sealant. A sealant is a substance that protects your teeth from cavities. Generations before, people didn’t know about floss, so they gave their teeth up to bacteria.
Nowadays we know about floss so we don’t lose our adult teeth. Now, if your teeth are crooked you can go to the orthodontist. Orthodontists help with many teeth problems. For example, I had braces to help my teeth become straight. It worked! If you are having dental work with the orthodontist they might have to take impressions. Impressions are molds of your teeth. If you have a fun dentist, they might make a mold of your fingertip.
If you have your braces on only a few teeth, and have them taken out, you will probably have to wear an upper and lower retainer at night until you get your final set of braces (that is what I had to do). After you get all of them off you will receive the reward of a bag of candy, find a vibrant smile.
We hope we convinced you to take care of teeth and have a great, brilliant, vibrant smile for picture day.
— Dr. Yvonne Rochon is Santa Barbara pediatric dentist.
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