• Watch Your Mouth Massachusetts: The Watch Your Mouth Coalition Is Working In Massachusetts, New Hampshire And Maine To Make Children's Oral Health A Priority. Objectives of the Watch Your Mouth Coalition are to Educate the public that tooth decay is the most common childhood disease that can cause diminished school performance and poor overall health. WYM advocates for wider access to preventive services, such as dental sealants and fluoride, and regular dental exams for all children.
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New!Check out the Watch Your Mouth television advertisement, airing around the state right now! Preview the ad at full size. (Download QuickTime player.)








Newsletter

Vol. 4, issue 5
April 2009

Upcoming Events

It's Never Too Late to Make Access to Dental Care a Priority

smiling people

Today, there are less health resources available to our communities. As incomes tighten and companies downsize, many people have lost their dental insurance and can no longer afford routine visits. According to a USA Today article, many Americans say they forgo routine dental care. The Gallup-Healthways poll found that 1 in 3 Americans did not seek preventive oral health care last year. We know that dental disease is a silent epidemic that can interfere with life's most basic functions, such as eating, talking and sleeping. Nationally, every year, 51 million school hours are lost due to dental related absence. These lost school hours mean lost opportunities for our children to learn the skills they'll need to become the citizens that will stimulate our communities' future. In addition, kids with dental disease often reach adulthood with the disease, where the health consequences become even more serious, as dental disease is associated with stroke, diabetes and lung disease.

USA Today also highlights that communities can increase access to dental care by offering locally supported programs that emphasizes prevention. Solutions proposed include screening services provided by students at local dental schools and growing a network of volunteer dentists to reach underserved communities. Here in Massachusetts, there are several oral health programs to ensure the well being of various populations. These programs include BEST (Bringing Early Education and Treatment) Oral Health program to give pre-school children a healthy start in life, as well as Taunton Oral Health Clinic and Cape Cod Dentists Care program that provide low cost dental care to those who qualify.

To keep these programs viable, Commonwealth residents and advocates have been working with their legislators to ensure that our state budget supports these priorities. During the budget season, Commonwealth communities are continuing the conversation with their legislators and advocate for tried and true public health practices that increase access to oral health care in order to keep communities healthy. To learn more what you can do to speak up for oral health, contact Courtney Chelo with the Oral Health Advocacy Taskforce of Health Care For All at cchelo@hcfama.org or 617.275.2935.

Read the USA Today article

Let's Include the Mouth in Massachusetts' Health Reform Plan

teacher in class

This past April, advocates, members of the Affordable Care Today coalition, health professionals, and lawmakers commemorated Massachusetts' pioneer approaches in the health care system as Chapter 58, the landmark health reform law, reached its third anniversary. As the conversations on health care continue at the state and federal level, we need to apply this same innovative thinking to an essential part of the health care system that is often left out of the conversation: oral health.

Oral health is an important part of our overall health. When your mouth is not healthy, neither is the rest of your body. Dental disease is a silent epidemic that can profoundly impair children's educational progress and many basic daily activities, such as eating, speaking and learning. Poor oral health also has long term consequences on our health and has been associated with increased risk for heart disease, diabetes and premature births. Dental disease is almost entirely preventable, but only when preventive care and access to health insurance is available.

To date, Massachusetts' health reform has insured 432,000 people who were previously without health insurance. This is the equivalent of 395 people becoming insured every day for three years or filling up all the seats in Gillette Stadium six times. While this is a great start, we need to make sure that we include oral health services in this program. We need to improve the oral health in order to improve the health and well being of the population. Oral health advocates across the state are taking up this issue by talking to their legislators about expanding health insurance to include dental coverage. To learn more about Massachusetts health care reform and the Affordable Care Today Coalition, please contact Catherine Hammons at chammons@hcfama.org or 617.275.2866.

Poor Oral Health = Poor Overall Health group of people seen from above

Communities have specific needs to maintain a healthy standard of living. This includes access to nutritious foods, employment and health care services. However, when one of these pieces is missing, there are consequences that affect the quality of life that we aim to attain. Lack of access to dental care is no exception, as we know it impacts overall well being. A recent report from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) found that people without dental coverage were significantly more likely to use the emergency department (ED) for preventable dental conditions such as untreated cavities, tooth infections, and gum disease.

The report, Emergency Department Visits for Preventable Dental Conditions in California, highlights much of what we already know about dental disease: that lack of access to oral health services has a significant impact on overall health. As with medical insurance, we know that children and adults, who lack dental insurance, and/or adequate funds to pay for services out-of-pocket, often forego needed preventive and restorative care. Poor oral health has been associated with increased risk for heart disease and diabetes. Dental decay can also affect individuals' ability to speak, eat, and succeed in work and school. In the long term, communities who are without access to preventive oral health services face more chronic health conditions and often add more burden to emergency departments and hospitals. Fortunately, dental decay is almost entirely preventable when people have access to simple services such as screenings, dental sealants and fluoride treatment.

In California, these effects are demonstrated by the 80,000 visits a year for preventable dental conditions. Left untreated, cavities and other routine dental problems can develop into serious infections that require immediate treatment, exacting a high cost both on patients and the health care system.

Click here to download the full report (.pdf)

May Partner Spotlight: The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, Inc.

By: Jan Yost, E.d.D., President

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts has provided $5.9 million over the past nine years to support projects - the Central Massachusetts Oral Health Initiative (CMOHI) and the Oral Health Initiative of North Central Massachusetts (OHINCM).

These projects significantly improved the access to dental services for vulnerable populations in Central Massachusetts, primarily through community health centers and the schools. Great Brook Valley Health Center and the Family Health Center in Worcester doubled their service capacity and the Community Health Connections Family Health Centers introduced dental services in Fitchburg, Gardner and Leominster.

Workforce expansion efforts by the projects included the implementation of a post-doctoral one-year dental residency within the University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of only three such programs at medical schools in the country. A dental hygiene program was also implemented at Mt. Wachusett Community College.

Both projects participated in the statewide Oral Health Advocacy Task Force facilitated by Health Call For All to win several legislative and administrative changes in MassHealth, enabling recruitment of dentists in private practice to accept Medicaid. Detailed reports on the CMOHI and the OHINCM can be found on The Health Foundation's website www.hfcm.org by searching CMOHI and OHINCM.

Remember to check out the Watch Your Mouth advertorial that will run on the Op-Ed page of the Boston Globe on May 29th.

Thanks,

Czarina



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