1.  “Dental Jeopardy” featured a trivia-show themed game where the children were taught basic oral health facts and then won prizes for correctly answering quiz questions.

2. “Brushing and Flossing” techniques were instructed at 2 separate booths with hand puppets and large teeth models, and then the children were given a turn to demonstrate.

3. “Fluoride” introduced children to the oral health benefits of fluoride rinses and tablets, and explained in a basic manner how fluoride strengthens teeth.

4. “Play Doh” allowed children to innovatively create a structure of a tooth with colors of clay in the tooth mold in order to demonstrate the layers of enamel, dentin, and pulp.

5. “Dental Careers” highlighted the various ways one could be involved in the dental profession, whether by becoming an auxiliary, dentist, educator, or public health official.  Dental students also brought in dentures fabricated in our pre-clinic lab as an example of our field of work, allowing their presentation to be touched, examined, and played with.  [Bring dental equipment, explorers to show kids that it doesn’t hurt.]

6. “Dental Decay” explained the process of cariogenesis by presenting an interactive demonstration with corn syrup, sprinkles, and acetone (representing plaque, sugar, and acid, respectively) and how these entities could stain and eat away tooth enamel (represented by a Styrofoam cup which was consequently dissolved).

7. “Celebrity Smiles” featured a presentation on oral esthetics.  Celebrity photos of Tiger Woods, Hannah Montana, Beyonce, and Kanye West were displayed in two form—normal and Photo-shopped with missing and decayed teeth so the children could compare smiles.  This aimed to call attention to the importance of esthetics and the social function of dentistry.

8. “Smoking Wheel of Misfortune” allowed children to spin a wheel which would land on a negative consequence of smoking such as high blood pressure, lung cancer, stained teeth, etc, in order to describe the harmful effects of nicotine use.

9. “Egg Race” simulated tartar build-up with eggs soaked in Coca-Cola overnight so they were stained brown.  Four youth volunteers “raced” to see who could brush their egg white again in 2 minutes.