News on a tech startup using artificial intelligence to improve oral health, ideas for parents with children home during coronavirus school closures, and an article on improving cancer screening protocol by Debbie Zafiropoulos.

I’m Tiffany Stark and you’re watching IDH Weekly on Aegis TV. In the news, a Harvard and MIT tech startup is using artificial intelligence to improve oral care. Overjet analyzes clinical data to formulate recommendations to enhance patient health and improve the quality of care. According to a recent article published by Forbes, Overjet was developed at the Harvard Innovation Lab, and evaluates patient care with algorithms that allow them to provide feedback to improve clinical care, increase office productivity, and identify revenue opportunities. Look for more stories like this on Inside Dental Hygiene’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. School and daycare closures due to the coronavirus have many parents scrambling to find activities to entertain their children at home. Many schools are providing online learning options, but this is not enough to occupy them – particularly those with younger children at elementary school level. Parents seek to strike a balance between allowing time for free-play and enough structure to prevent difficulty when transitioning back to school. One way to do this is to setup your child’s schedule daily in blocks of time. Provide a list of activities for them to choose from and set a timer for each block of time. This will give them a sense of independence through the selection of activities, while providing structure. Be sure to include options that allow them to move around inside and outside when weather permits. Look for ideas online that allow children to use basic household items to create crafts, safe science projects, or do a scavenger hunt. Good luck parents! The American Cancer Society estimate 53,000 new cases of oral cavity and pharynx cancer in the US in 2019. Overall, it’s estimated that more than 10,800 friends, neighbors, family members, and coworkers will succumb to a late stage diagnosis of oral cancer. These statistics are not very promising, and trends in new cancer cases and deaths can only be estimated because the incidence and mortality data still lag at least two to four years. Currently available on the Inside Dental Hygiene website, the article “We can do better: How Inadequate Cancer Screening Can Fail Our Patients” provides an overview of the status of oral cancer statistics and discusses distinct steps to improve oral cancer screening protocol. To read the full article, visit the link or click the QR code below. We hope you’ve enjoyed our updates on the latest in dental hygiene news, trends, and continuing education. I’m Tiffany Stark. Thank you for watching IDH Weekly. See you next week!