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One smile at a time

By Beatrix Gnemi, age 17 | December 27, 2023

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CRUSHING CAVITIES Two of the DTHY (DenTal HYgiene Matters) founders, Robyn Leggington and Melissa Tao, at the Refugee Health Fair, where they distributed over 600 dental hygiene products to refugees.

This year, DeBakey High School juniors founded the organization “DTHYMatters,” or “DenTal HYgiene Matters,” with the goal to “promote healthy smiles through oral hygiene awareness, one smile at a time.” Melissa Tao, Robyn Leggington, Chiagozie Nwokoro, and Cynthia Kong founded this organization as their Community Awareness project competition for their HOSA – Future Health Professionals club. Melissa explained that they chose this topic “after discovering the lack of knowledge regarding proper dental hygiene in our community that causes poor oral health in marginalized populations and adolescents particularly.”

These passionate students have amassed over 10K views so far through the @DTHYMatters Instagram and TikTok accounts. Their Instagram features an interview with a pediatric dentist, where Melissa, Robyn, Chiagozie, and Cynthia ask about common misconceptions and questions about dental-hygiene practices. They also featured a video demonstrating a regular cleaning, to decrease dental anxiety in children.

This November, DTHYMatters held a drive at DeBakey, where they collected around 300 dental hygiene products and distributed over 600 products to refugees at the Houston Refugee Health Fair. According to Cynthia, “Poor oral hygiene can cause a variety of health issues like respiratory and digestive problems that will be especially stressful for those who cannot pay for treatment, like refugees. Everyone should have access to proper dental hygiene products and information.” At this fair, the students spread oral hygiene awareness to over 50 refugee families.

Recently, they taught a group of 30 at Mark Twain Elementary about oral hygiene through interactive activities.

DTHYMatters plans on organizing more events to spread awareness on dental hygiene to high school and K-8 students, along with collecting more products for underprivileged groups in Houston.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on our School Buzz blog.

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