“Rethink Your Drink” sounds so catchy. I know it means choose water instead of sugary drinks, but I wonder if the children in my neighborhood know what it means. Do they know that we are trying to educate them to be more aware about the sugar in the drinks they are consuming? As a pediatric dentist, my strongest passion is educating parents and children on the importance of consuming tap water that contains fluoride which prevents dental decay. When parents become skeptical about using fluoridated toothpaste, drinking fluoridated tap water, and applying fluoride varnish, I explain to them that research studies show that fluoride helps reduce cavities by at least 25%.1 2  Most of the time, I manage to win them over. That’s because these children and parents are already in my office and they trust me. However, educating and persuading an entire community like North Hollywood – a suburb in North Los Angeles County with many high-risk children suffering from dental disease—to change their sugary drink habits may not be so easy. Creating sustainable change in this high dental-risk population requires ongoing motivation and constant reminders. The “Rethink Your Drink” campaign provides a valuable opportunity for me to educate and encourage children in my community about the benefits of drinking tap water. Even if it means an uphill battle, it’s worth it! 

With guidance from my local health department and CalFresh Healthy Living liaison, I began my outreach by connecting with children at local schools, where they gather and learn every day. I decided to send e-mails to local elementary school teachers, principals, and local medical clinics, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). In my emails, I included information provided by the California Department of Public Health about the “Rethink Your Drink” campaign. However, catching the attention of busy school and clinic administrators often proved to be challenging. Most schools were lukewarm to the idea of incorporating new information into their already busy school curriculum. Many schools did not even respond to my emails. Some clinics were skeptical about the health and safety of drinking tap water, and others dismissed us because they felt other health topics needed to be prioritized with their patients. Finally, during the heat wave in September, one school called and asked if my clinic staff and I could pass out water after school. We immediately went into action. We brought in gallons of water and set up a tent at the school, where we greeted the children with ice-cold cups of water. Most children and parents were sweating in the heat, and the ice-cold water provided them instant relief. They stayed under the tent to keep cool, giving us the perfect opportunity to talk to them about the many benefits of drinking water. Using interactive visual displays, we showed them the hidden calories and amount of sugar in popular beverages. The children chatted about the exhibits with each other, and many discussed how surprised they were by the amount of sugar in the drinks. The school was thrilled. The principal and teachers were excited to see the children receive the important message of choosing water as their beverage of choice. The extreme heat that day made the event particularly relevant and underscored the importance of making better choices for overall health and well-being.  

The word got out! Several local schools started calling. I received so many requests for school visits that my staff and I had to start adding lunch time “pop-up” events to accommodate the growing community interest. I also developed personal connections with many teachers, and together, we coordinated classroom and virtual presentations, as well as school-wide assemblies to teach students about the upside of drinking water and the downside of drinking sugary beverages.  During some of the presentations, I asked students to pour the amount of sugar noted on each drink’s nutrition label into an empty soda bottle so that they could visualize how much sugar is in the drink.  This really helped open their eyes to see how much excess sugar they are consuming with these beverages.  After one school assembly presentation, the principal emailed me to let me know that when she visited the students in the classroom afterwards, she was impressed to hear them sharing what they had learned. 

We have also collaborated to create videos tailored for elementary school students, helping them learn about the importance of choosing healthy beverages. We plan to distribute these videos to schools outside of our immediate reach area to spread the message to “Rethink Your Drink.”  

What started as an uphill battle, with the local community giving us initial resistance, has turned out to be the talk of the town. I have been inspired to continue my efforts by recruiting other providers in the community to help advocate for choosing healthy beverages for healthier lives. Together we can make a difference.  

1.  Griffin SO, Regnier E, Griffin PM, Huntley VN. Effectiveness of fluoride in preventing caries in adults. J Dent Res. 2007;86(5):410–415. 

2.  Iheozor-Ejiofor Z, Worthington HV, Walsh T, et al. Water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries. Cochrane Database of Syst Rev. 2015;(6). Art. No.: CD010856. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD010856.pub2 

Dr. Michelle To is a pediatric dentist serving the North Hollywood and Thousand Oaks communities. She has worked extensively with Smile California to campaign for increasing providers serving in rural areas.  She serves as an advisor for the Ventura County of Public Health Oral Health Advisory Committee and Oral Health Literacy Subcommittee.