One Smile at a Time

Nancy Johnson of the Tufts Community Dental Program discusses the passion that has led her peers to consider her a "hero."

Boston [03.21.08] Purple frogs and oversized sunglasses have become a large part of Nancy Johnson's life and she wouldn't give either up for the world. Housing a childlike heart in her 53-year-old body, Johnson's work as a dental hygienist, which has always had a powerful impact on her patients, has recently gained her "hero" status from her peers.

On Feb. 15 at the Massachusetts State House, Johnson, a hygienist for the Tufts Community Dental Program, was one of four recipients of the Third Annual "Oral Health Hero" award, presented by Watch Your Mouth, a coalition focused on children's oral health.

Growing up in Connecticut, Johnson came to Massachusetts in 1978 to work for the National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped, an organization of hygienists who work with special needs patients. In 1996, they came under Tufts' purview.

From that point on, the group, which became known as the Tuft Community Dental Program, began work on grant writing, eventually allowing them to secure portable equipment used for on-site dental treatment that would help tie into their goal of providing preventive oral health services to vulnerable populations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

"We were targeting those with special needs as well as early childhood and kindergarten kids," Johnson says. "At the same time, the Massachusetts' Office of Oral Health was doing Head Start screenings and identified oral health as an area of concern, finding a great number of kids with dental disease. The Office of Oral Health was seeking an agency to provide services, and we were looking for people to provide services for."

Beginning in 2004, the first pilot children's dental treatment program for Head Start with the Tufts affiliation was launched. The idea behind the program, according to Johnson, was "to not only prevent and identify dental disease early, but to make a good first dental contact for kids."

For their first meeting, Johnson says she goes in, wearing her scrubs, to make a connection with the kids. "I sit on the floor with them and I read from this book called 'Nick and Kathy's First Trip to the Dentist.' The book was created by the health department in Arizona who has stopped using it, but gave us permission to recreate it, as well as Nick and Kathy finger puppets, to tell the story."

It is here where Johnson introduces "Lily," the purple frog, who has a full set of teeth. "I bring in my goggles, mask, saliva ejector and x-rays and I go through the whole process."

Once the kids get more comfortable, Johnson and crew come back at a later date and begin the treatment with the children whose parents have consented.

"They come in and they get to pick out a pair of sunglasses, with the idea that the dental light is a lot like the sun," Johnson said. "We don't push anyone. Many times I roll back my chair and say 'This is about you and if you don't want to do this, then we won't,' and that puts them back in control."

The children who make it through the process are screened for white spot legions and decay, ending their visit with a fluoride varnish and a goody bag equipped with a battery-operated toothbrush.

At the same time the pilot plan took off, Dr. Frank Robinson of Partners for a Healthier Community, based in Springfield, Mass., one of the three main communities Johnson covers in the Hamden County area, along with other interested agencies in the region, began to address the growing dental health issues they were seeing in the communities children.

"Kids were continually coming down to the nurse, and not for band-aids," Johnson says. "They were coming down in pain because they had holes and abscesses in their teeth. They were identifying a need for early identification programs, and I thought there is no reason why we can't do this."

From there the Bring Early Education Screening and Treatment (B.E.S.T.) program was formed. In her recent testimony before the State Senate's Committee of Ways and Means, Johnson announced that the Tufts Community Health Program has been able to provide comprehensive dental treatment, which includes a hygiene visit and a follow up with a partnering dentist, to over 6,500 children all over Massachusetts.

Though Johnson is modest about her work with the Tufts Community Dental Program, which services towns throughout the state, she can't seem to boast enough about the program itself and what it has done for the community.

"When I received my award and was told I would have to speak in front of a group of people I was so nervous, but I kept remembering how important this program has been for these children and how I need to continue to get that message out to those who provide the funding to keep us going.

"I know that it is important, I have seen the results, and I have seen the disparity and the problems. I love being able to make a difference on such a grassroots level. This is my passion. It is my love."

Profile written by Kaitlin Melanson, Web Communications