The Hispanic Dental Association (HDA) launched its 2015 National Hispanic/Latino Oral Health Education Campaign on June 30. Funding for the campaign comes from a $50,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
The campaign focuses on three central components:
- Educate oral health professionals about the needs of the underserved Hispanic/Latino population.
- Teach private practitioners how to strengthen the public and private health safety nets through new workforce models.
- Educate the Hispanic/Latino population about dental health through bilingual messaging.
The core of the campaign will be in cities where HDA has professional chapters, augmented by its 34 dental student chapters.
"As the Hispanic community continues to grow, oral health disparities are not being addressed at a pace that keeps up with the increase in the population size," stated Vidal Baldera, DDS, HDA president, in a press release. "We look forward to a partnership where we can empower the public with culturally appropriate oral health information."
