ATTENTION 1st and 3rd GRADERS!!
At Richland Public Health (RPH), our mission is to assess, maintain, and improve the health and safety of the environment and community through quality public health services. The vision is to have the healthiest community possible where residents can enjoy optimal physical, emotional, and environmental health. We value professionalism, ethics, and collaboration in order to respond to the needs of our community.
The City of Mansfield is one of the few remaining cities in the State of Ohio that does not fluoridate its water system. Fluoride helps teeth stay strong, healthy and fights against tooth decay. According to the Health Assessment of Richland County, tooth decay is one of the most common untreated and most common chronic diseases seen in the youth of this community. To ensure youth of this community are receiving the appropriate amount of fluoride to improve their level of dental health, RPH is conducting an innovative and sustainable solution through a new dental program, "Smile BIG Richland." This initiative will help reduce dental health inequalities regularly seen in families of lower socio-economic status, and/or racial minorities since fluoride-containing products are more expensive and the city's water not containing fluoride.