Child Safety ‘ID’ Event And Costume Contest

Set At Dental Associates Newtown Office

The Newtown office of Dental Associates is sponsoring a Child Safety/Open House on Halloween weekend, at which free Toothprints dental ID kits will be available to area families. The event has been scheduled to tie in with the community’s Halloween festivities, and will be held on Sunday, October 30, from 10 am to 2 pm, at the Dental Associates office, 11 Church Hill Road.

A Halloween Costume Contest will take place simultaneously. The top prize for best child’s costume will be a Nintendo Game Cube, and the top prize for the best adult costume will be a gift certificate for cosmetic tooth whitening.

Developed by a pediatric dentist, Toothprints is a thermoplastic wafer that dental professionals can use to record the characteristics and position of a child’s teeth, along with the upper to lower jaw relationship, to provide vital identification information. Like fingerprints, dental imprints are unique to every person so bite impressions serve as an accurate method of identification.

 Although dental restorations and x-rays have historically been the primary basis for dental identification, the successful fight against tooth decay has left many children with no cavities and, hence, no dental records. Toothprints solves this problem with an easy-to-take, highly accurate impression that also captures saliva from which a DNA test can be successfully performed.

 Saliva is also a powerful source of human scent, making a Toothprints impression effective for tracking by scent-dogs. Once the impression has been taken, parents keep the Toothprints record themselves for both confidentiality and quick access.

Dr Christine Dowling, a pediatric dentist and new associate with the Newtown office of Dental Associates, along with representatives from the Newtown Police Department, the Newtown Fire Department, the Newtown Rotary Club, and Comcast Cable will be on hand to participate in the festivities.

Dental Associates will continue to offer the Toothprints child identification device free to area families at its Danbury, Newtown, and New Milford Pediatric Dentistry offices.