April 10, 2004

By: Lilian Ross
Website: http://www.teeth-whitening-smiles.com

Dental Care – Proper Oral Health Makes A Big Difference In Your Health

Community advocates, including dentists, hygienists, and citizens from around the state gather in Seattle Thursday, Mar. 25, to brainstorm ways to improve the availability of dental care to children. The all-day conference, Community Roots for Oral Health, is sponsored by the state Department of Health. Members of 15 oral health coalitions plan to share solutions for bettering dental health services for the state’s low-income children.

More than 60 percent of children who receive benefits through Medicaid do not receive dental health services, said Beth Hines, dental program manager for the state Department of Health. To overcome the problem, providers and public health workers must develop innovative ways to fill the gaps.

Dental and oral health coalitions in communities across the state have begun to fill that void. In the past eight years coalitions have sprung up in King, Pierce, Thurston, Lewis and Mason counties. In Eastern Washington, similar associations have formed in Spokane, Lincoln, Wenatchee and Yakima counties as well as the Tri Cities. All coalitions hope to achieve the same goal: ensuring all children receive regular dental checkups, oral hygiene education and treatment as necessary.

The mouth is part of the body, and often the oral health needs of children are overlooked until a child is experiencing pain or is unable to eat or sleep, Hines said. Communities are looking for ways to get all children in to see a dentist for check-ups just as they get in for a physical exam.

In Lincoln County, volunteer dentists pair up with school districts to give care to low-income children. In Mason County, members turned a four-year-old coalition into a nonprofit organization as a to way start a dental clinic for underprivileged youngsters. In Yakima, the coalition received two grants totaling $180,000 that, in turn, may guarantee the city a fluoridated water supply should the city council support such a measure.

Yakima County has the third highest population of Medicaid children, following King and Pierce counties; there simply aren’t enough dentists period, let alone dentists who will see Medicaid children, said Pat Brown, Children’s Medicaid Program manager, Department of Social and Health Services.

We can’t pay for restorative care for all children with tooth decay, so prevention is the answer.

Fluoridated water, found in many of the state’s and nation’s municipal water supplies, has been proven to prevent decay. Yet only 50 percent of Washington's residents drink from fluoridated water systems.

We have a very high rate of caries, especially among low and low-middle income children, Brown said. Within a generation, fluoridated water would turn that around.

In Mason County, the coalition turned non-profit organization has been operating a dental clinic for the past year. In their circumstance, there was no way to establish to clinic without becoming a nonprofit group first, said Eva Rooks of the Mason County Children’s Dental Coalition: No one — neither hospital nor individual providers — wanted to pair up with us to take on the clinic.

While raising funds and recruiting volunteers is still a challenge, the clinic has considerable autonomy, a private dentist who donates his services and the support of United Way.

In my experience few private providers are willing to treat low-income children because they pay with coupons, said Rooks, who years earlier helped run a pilot project dental clinic in Mason County. The abscesses and tooth decay in children ages 2 to 12 were rampant, but no one thinks about dental care until something hurts.

Brown of Yakima County agreed, adding: Too many children are getting rotten teeth for no good reason. There are 6-year-old boys and girls who are having permanent teeth extracted. In America, there is no good reason for that — we’re not a third world country.

With the support of the state Department of Health, coalitions like those in Yakima and Mason counties will continue to find the resources necessary to introduce clinics to communities, seek increased Medicaid reimbursement to dentists, and develop initiatives and funding sources to install water fluoridation equipment.

Author Notes:

Lilian Ross contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.teeth-whitening-smiles.com.  Everything you need to know to get a whiter, brighter smile!