Local Station WCHL Honors Students Kerns, Jackson for Work in Prenatal Oral Health

Local Chapel Hill/Carrboro radio station WCHL honored Amanda Kilburn Kerns and Jeffrey Jackson, both D.D.S. Candidates 2014, with a Village Pride Award. They were recognized for their leadership and work on the Prenatal Oral Health Program (pOHP) at the school. Part of that program involves current students treating pregnant women at the school clinics who are referred by medical students.

Dr. Rocio Quinonez, associate professor in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry and co-developer of the pOHP program, nominated the pair of students. Dr. Kim Boggess, professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of OB-GYN, is the other co-developer of the program

“Amanda and Jeff have both really helped the mission of pOHP,” said Quinonez. “They’re doing a great job of sending the message about prenatal oral health and have been great at helping to organize the students at the School of Medicine to refer women over to our clinic. They’ve helped teach medical students about the principles of oral health care during pregnancy and have done an outstanding job at bringing the medical and dental students together to help promote prenatal oral health as a parlay into the baby’s oral health.”

pOHP is a collaboration between the UNC School of Dentistry and the UNC School of Medicine Department of OB-GYN designed to educate with resources for medical and dental health care providers as well as expectant mothers on the principles of prenatal oral health. In addition to producing resources for care providers to use in their visits with pregnant women, the School of Dentistry has instituted a pOHP clinic that provides oral care specifically for pregnant women. Additionally, the program recently launched a website (www.prenataloralhealth.org) to improve the health of every woman, fetus and child and engage providers to deliver essential preventive oral health services during pregnancy by using pOHP as a model of care.

The WCHL Village Pride Award is a daily announcement on WCHL that recognizes community members who make a difference and are viewed as hometown heroes. As honorees, both Kerns and Jackson will be invited to a luncheon recognizing all the recent award winners next spring at the Carolina Inn.