The Watonga Indian Health Center is a Federal Clinic located in a rural area of Oklahoma, located 70 miles west of Oklahoma City. It is a medical clinic with a dental component. Our patient population is Native Americans. There is 1 dentist with 2 dental assistants and 3 treatment rooms. We provide constant dental education on an individual basis. We provide oral health education at tribal health fairs, nursing homes, and head start programs. We also go to the schools that have a sizable percentage of Native American children and place sealants and provide dental hygiene education.

We have approximately 400 children aged 0-3 registered in the Watonga Indian Health Center. It is a depressed rural area with scarcity of employment and inadequate socio-economic opportunities. There is high rate of unemployment and high rate of teen-age pregnancies. This program will provide an opportunity to teach other health care professionals on the importance of providing dental check-ups at an early age to prevent dental diseases. At the present time there is none of such program. There exists an epidemic of rampant Early Childhood Caries.