Helping Mothers Get Their Kids on the Path to Good Oral Health From Day One

As dental hygienists well know, good oral health begins before birth, but not all pregnant women understand how to support dental health from the start. Lisa Bress, RDH, MS, a clinical associate professor and chief of dental hygiene at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore (UMSOD), is passionate about changing that.

She is the principal investigator of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Prenatal Postpartum Advisory Board (PPAB), a statewide advisory group of community mothers from the B’More for Healthy Babies program and health professionals from institutions including the University of Maryland Schools of Medicine and Dentistry.

“The PPAB works to help jump-start Maryland’s Medicaid dental benefits for prenatal/postpartum mothers and all adults. The past 4 years of leading the PPAB have been extremely impactful and have led to integrating oral health into community health worker (CHW) training and certification through area health education centers most recently Maryland school health nursing services,” she explains. “The CHW educates patients about oral health and has more than doubled the number of pregnant and postpartum patient referrals to the dental school.”

Bress, whose mother was a dental hygienist, has been passionate about improving oral health among the underserved from the start of her career. She previously coordinated a clinical rotation at a UMSOD satellite clinic in rural Maryland County, helping to address extremely high rates of dental disease, particularly tooth decay. Bress continues to develop grant programs to reach populations with difficulty accessing dental care.

“The first grant program I developed was in partnership with the Cecil County Health Department. We developed a fluoride varnish program for Title One schools that included dental hygiene, dental, and nurse practitioner students providing oral health presentations, screenings, and fluoride varnish applications in Head Start programs and pre-K and kindergarten classrooms followed by linking children to a dental home,” Bress shares.

She is most proud of the grant program that created the Maryland Coalition for Allied Dental Education (MCADE), which brings together public health leaders from all over the state to address such pressing issues as expanding access to dental care and addressing dental hygiene workforce shortages.

“Our second annual MCADE will take place August 14 at the National Museum of Dentistry. At our inaugural event last August, representatives from seven of the eight dental hygiene programs attended, which initiated numerous partnerships between public health leaders and dental hygiene faculty and students,” Bress notes.

Many of the students who participate in these programs are part of the Bachelor of Science (BS)/Master of Science (MS) Dual Degree Clinical Dental Hygiene Leader (CDHL) track at UMSOD. A unique course of study, the program is geared toward students with a science background who have decided to specialize in dental hygiene and those who want a primary healthcare role in the oral health profession.

“This program is the only one of its kind in the country, as students are eligible to apply only if they have earned a BS in a field outside of dentistry,” Bress explains. “Once accepted, they complete courses over 2 years (including three summers and an extra 30 credits) to earn a BS in dental hygiene in May of their senior year and then an MS in dental hygiene in August after defending their capstone research project in July. Many of the students graduate with the experience of leading community engaged research projects that have impacted dental public health programs across the state of Maryland.”

Bress is demonstrating how early intervention and community-driven initiatives can transform oral health outcomes for both mothers and children. Her work underscores the critical role dental hygienists play in advancing health equity and ensuring every child has a healthier start from day one.