a-wow Light Up A Smile

“AWOW Light Up A Smile” (ALUAS) are among the charitable programs and many ways that AWOW International Girls Leadership Initiative participates as an active participant in the communities where we serve. It's primary areas of focus are education, health, and human services.

AWOW in partnership with La Fundación Curridabat, Clinica Dental Loma Verde, Campbell & Williams Family Dental, Club Rotario San Pedro Curridabat, Club Rotaract San Pedro, LaCometa, and Lewisville Morning Rotary Club has put together a team of dentist, dental hygienist, and volunteers from Lewisville and Curridabat, San Jose Costa Rica, to assist and provide oral health education and services to families in Costa Rica.

Future Without Poverty- University of North Texas, an AWOW affiliate will help distribute Shelter Solar Kit for lighting and power source to families in remote areas of Costa Rica.

barriers to care

For tribal residents that suffers from severe and widespread oral disease the barriers to adequate access to dental care are great.

Gaining access to routine and emergency dental care is particularly challenging for these communities. The most difficult aspect of providing dental care is access to care for residents. The villages are small and cannot support a full-time general dentist or physician, let alone specialists. Dentists must travel to the villages periodically to provide dental care, or patients must be transported to a dentist for treatment, often at great cost.

Primary Dental Health Aide

Dental health professionals would provide oral health services to families. These dental health professional are key components of a long-term comprehensive plan to improve the oral health of residents in rural and tribal regions. ALUAS oral health program will provide oral health education, “toothbrush” prophylaxes, topical fluoride applications, dental sealants, oral screenings; and assist the dentist during visits to the village when dental treatment is provided.

The program aims to:
• Increase the presence of appropriate dental personnel in the remote villages to implement educational and preventive dental programs
• Increase the availability of experienced dentists to treat the existing disease
• Improve the physical infrastructure in the remote villages that hinder good oral health practices.

goals

The collective goal of all parties involved in ALUAS oral health program is to bring the oral health status of the villages to a level of good health for all residents. This mission will be achieve by the commitment to long-term efforts, and insisting on and working toward the same level of good oral health care for the communities, notwithstanding existing barriers to accessing dental care

Through education and the active prevention of oral disease we can offer hope for improving the oral health status of Tribal Costa Ricans over time. There will always be physical challenges to providing dental care; therefore, the it’s practical to plan to prevent oral diseases. The beauty of a well-run educational and preventive program is that it can be effective, is far less costly than providing therapeutic treatment, and can be implemented by lower level providers with minimal supervision by dentists.