DOES THE MYSMILEBUDDY PROGRAM WORK?

Yes!

In the 4-year Medicaid-innovation trial, the MySmileBuddy Program was feasible, acceptable, and positively impactful on parents’ oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. The Program also reduced caries progression in the majority of 1207 young children already experiencing decay. Stopping decay progression (technically “arresting caries”) reduces the need for high-cost low-value treatment of young children under general anesthesia.

Parents endorsed the MySmileBuddy Program: 99% percent of parents reported that they would recommend the Program to others.

Parents liked working with their MySmileBuddy Coaches: 98% of parents reported that their community health worker coach was helpful and caring, explained things.

Parents liked the MySmileBuddy App: 99% of parents reported that the App helped them reach their goal, was visually appealing, and easy to understand. Over 85% reported that the App made it easy to remember and achieve their goal.

Children’s oral health improved: Parents reported that their children’s oral health improved. At the start of families’ 6-12 month experience with the Program, 51% of parents reported that their child’s oral health was poor-or-fair. After experiencing the Program, only 2% of parents reported their child to be in fair oral health and none reported their child to be in poor oral health. The majority of these high-risk children (57%) had no caries progression over 12 months.