Dozens of students gathered to design multilingual oral healthcare brochures to reduce language-based barriers when providing dental care and services.
Held in Postle Hall on Monday, Oct. 13, the “Creating Smiles Across Cultures” event was created by The Smile Support Society, a student-led organization that focuses on promoting oral health awareness through education, outreach and service.
During the event, students were split into groups and tasked with producing brochures that creatively communicated common oral health phrases in different languages.
To fully encompass the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of Columbus residents, the society consulted various cultural organizations on campus during the translation and brochure design process.
“Columbus is always growing and changing, and from that, we have people that might not understand different languages,” Youcef Hennaoui, a third-year in biology and president of the society, said. “I called on a lot of different orgs that could come together and represent Columbus and its cultural makeup.”
The event attendees reflected this diversity, with students from each of the collaborating cultural and language groups present and directly contributing to the project.
While engaging in the service project, students also had the opportunity to learn from each others’ experiences.
“It was a great opportunity to meet new people, especially other pre-dental students, and learn about other cultures,” Romayssae Salih, a third-year in health sciences and event attendee, said.
Each group was given a list of common oral health-related phrases, such as “brush your teeth twice a day” and “if you feel pain or sensitivity in your teeth, visit a doctor,” in English and the group’s assigned language. They were tasked with formatting these translations on creative brochures to be distributed to dental clinics partnered with the society in the Columbus-area.
Hennaoui hopes the brochures will limit stress associated with dental visits due to language barriers.
“Imagine going into a place you know you need to go into, but you don’t understand anything. A lot of the time, that’s super overwhelming for patients so they often just skip appointments,” Hennaoui said. “We hope the brochures make dental offices more welcoming and reduce that anxiety that comes with being at the dentist.”
In addition to increasing patient comfort, Hennaoui believes the brochures will have long-term positive health effects.
“[The brochures] will help take care of patients’ oral health by giving them clear understandings, and over time it will reduce preventable issues like cavities and gum disease because the doctor is able to communicate an efficient long-term plan,” Hennaoui said.
This initiative directly ties to the society’s mission of providing information and resources regarding oral healthcare to promote patient autonomy and confidence, Hennaoui said.
“Our mission is to bridge the gap between oral health with people in our community, especially in Columbus,” Hennaoui said. “For us, oral health isn’t just about health. It’s about confidence, dignity and equity.”
Initial inspiration and planning for the project was directly inspired by The Smile Support Society members’ own experiences, Hennaoui said.
Hennaoui was born in Algeria and said the country doesn’t have many dental offices, so his parents were overwhelmed by the unfamiliar terminology.
“Now that I’ve grown up, I am realizing that people are still coming to America and maybe not understanding the verbiage that comes with healthcare,” Hennaoui said. “I think it’s my turn to give back to [people with similar experiences] because I was once in their spot and it feels like it’s the right thing to do to try to help in any way that I can.”
Muhseen Choudhury, a second-year in health sciences and outreach chair of the society, also reflected on his personal experiences when planning the event.
“My parents are immigrants as well, and I know my dad didn’t go to the dentist’s office for the first twenty years he was here because he wasn’t able to — he didn’t understand, he didn’t have the money, it was all of that combined,” Choudhury said. “I think just being able to simplify that process for someone else coming in who just immigrated here or someone who just needs it is something I really want to help with.”
These perspectives solidified The Smile Support Society’s desire to host the event, and the organization quickly contacted cultural groups on campus to begin planning.
“That kind of sparked our interest in this new type of event, where we pushed back our other events because we realized that the need for accurate information in the language that someone understands is very important,” Hennaoui said.
At the end of the event, participants shared the brochures they created on the projector and explained the translations and cultural symbols used. The brochure designs will be printed and distributed to partner clinics throughout the Columbus-area in the next few days.
“I hope [attendees] walk away realizing the impact that they have made with their skills and creativity,” Hennaoui said. “I hope they feel proud of the brochures they made, because oftentimes we talk about making a difference, but by coming to this event we’re physically making a difference.”
