VOLUNTEER SCRAPES AWAY AT PLAQUE : CHILDREN LEARN TO TAKE CARE OF TEETH.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Volunteer oral hygiene instructor Monika Pfluegler draws attention each time she walks into a classroom. It's not hard, considering her green alligator hand puppet named Chopper who's outfitted with a set of plastic dentures and a squirt gun.

The Canyon Country resident uses the puppet to teach pupils in kindergarten through second grade about the importance of brushing and flossing their teeth every day. She uses the squirt gun to capture the interest of those with short attention spans.

``Monika is wonderful,'' said Mary Caravalho, president and founder of the Foundation for Children's Dental Health, a nonprofit organization formed in 1993 that provides free dental care and oral hygiene education to low-income families and their children in kindergarten through eighth grades.

``She gets down and speaks to the children and becomes one with them.''

Pfluegler has volunteered with the agency for three years, distributing toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, pamphlets, stickers and coloring books to 2,500 children in the Santa Clarita Valley every year.

``Those kids really do need me,'' she said, noting that some are so poor that they have to share their toothbrushes with siblings. ``I enjoy doing the program.''

A volunteer librarian at Old Orchard Elementary School, Pfluegler learned about oral hygiene from a dentist involved in the foundation. Now the organization's main volunteer oral hygiene educator, she visits the valley's four elementary school districts, giving 20-minute presentations that cover nutrition, brushing and flossing. She also tells children what to expect during the first visit to the dentist.

``I put them at ease, to make the first trip to the dentist not so scary,'' said Pfluegler, who shows the children dental tools and equipment including latex gloves, plastic goggles and a surgical mask.

Six-year-old Imali Bandara said she enjoyed the program and learned a few lessons as well.

``I learned how to brush your teeth inside and outside and how to floss,'' said the dark-haired first-grader as she examined the tools in Pfluegler's dental kit.

The busiest time for Pfluegler is February, national Dental Health Month. She sometimes talks to four to five classes a day, reaching 120 to 150 students a day.

Caravalho said Pfluegler's oral hygiene program is the only one of its kind in the local public school system. Without it, many children would not know how to properly care for their teeth, she said.

``It's a great idea because they don't do programs like this,'' Caravalho said, adding, ``If we didn't have Monika we wouldn't have the program.''

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Photo: (ran in SAC edition only--color) Monika Pfluegler teaches a class of first-graders about dental hygiene using a hand puppet alligator named Chopper. Pfluegler reaches 2,500 Santa Clarita Valley children a year, sometimes four classes a day, as a volunteer with the Foundation for Children's Dental Health.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News