The Tryon Kiwanis Club and the Partnership for Children of the Foothills have collaborated to bring the Healthy Smiles puppet show to Polk County’s preschool children.

The puppet show, produced by Puppet Love, is on a CD with 13 puppets talking and singing about the importance of taking care of your teeth.

The Dental Assistants employed in the Healthy Smiles program and the Hygienists with the N.C. Oral Health Section serving Polk County will take the puppet show on the road throughout the county. The puppet show will be used at child care centers and community events and will cover four basic points: Nutrition, tooth brushing, visiting the dentist and it will prepare children for a dental screening.

This commitment to the oral health of Polk County’s young children will hopefully impact the number of children entering kindergarten with untreated tooth decay. According to the most recent figures reported by the N.C. Oral Health Section, nearly 25 percent of children in Polk, Rutherford and McDowell counties enter kindergarten with untreated tooth decay. Transportation is often a barrier in accessing dental services, because most dentists who treat young children are located outside the three-county region.

Staff and volunteers from the Tryon Kiwanis Club, the Partnership for Children of the Foothills, the Health Department and Collins Dental Center will be trained to administer the ‘show.’

For more information, please call Barry Gold at 828-287-2775.

Resource:  Get a sneak peak of the Healthy Smiles puppet show on April 18 at ICC/Polk Campus from 6 – 7:30 p.m.  Also showing that night will be “Childhood Stories,” a documentary about child sexual abuse.  Join the movement to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to the reality of child sexual abuse. A light supper and childcare will be provided.

– Barry Gold,
Partnership for
Children of the Foothills