News Articles

Time to Focus on Dental Health
North Adams Transcript, February 23, 2006

By Charles Joffe-Halpern and Kate W. Vaughan

Thursday, February 23, 2006 - This past year Dr. Raul Garcia, Chairman of Policy and Health Services Research at Boston University's Dental School, startled participants at the nation's first ever legislative oral health caucus when he announced that: "research now reveals that the mouth is connected to the rest of the body." As February is national Children's Dental Health Month, we should recognize that his statement could not have come soon enough. 

As early as 500 BCE Greek scientists believed that infections in one part of the body could impact the health of other organs and tissues and medical students were encouraged to evaluate the mouth as part of routine physical examinations.  But as history evolved, by the 1800's dental diseases came to be regarded as specifically oral problems and the practices of medicine and dentistry developed into two different practice traditions.  This created an artificial distinction between care of the mouth and care of the rest of the body.
 
Dr. William Maas, director of the Division of Oral Health at the CDC observes that health insurance also evolved around this dichotomy and was conceived as hospital insurance, taken out against unforeseen hospital stays due to illness. Dental expenses were considered more predictable and more manageable by good family budgeting. Ironically, dental insurance is more common for people with high salaries. Consequently, out-of-pocket dental expenses create a barrier for lower income families, relegating teeth to a lower priority.  In Massachusetts while 500,000 MA residents lack medical insurance, 2.3 million lack dental insurance.

On a nation-wide scale the consequences of this have been both insidious and destructive.  Tooth decay is now the single most common chronic childhood disease, five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.  Kids who suffer from tooth decay and other oral diseases have difficulty eating, speaking and learning. Nationally, it is estimated that kids miss 51 million hours of school due to oral diseases. Further, because dental disease is a bacterial infection, it can leave children vulnerable to other illnesses.
  
In response to this pervasive condition, a statewide campaign named “Watch Your Mouth" has been developed to raise awareness of the connections between oral health and overall health.  With support from the Oral Health Foundation, WYM understands that we must work together to make sure that children get the health care that they need to stay healthy.

We know that dental disease is widespread and we know that prevention is a powerful solution to the problem. Here are some ways that we can improve the health of all children in Massachusetts:

• Preventive measures including dental sealants, fluoride treatments and early childhood screenings are all very effective ways of preventing dental disease in children. Ensuring that children have these treatments early in life will increase their chances of staying healthy later.

• Expanding the dental capacity of community health centers and school-based health centers. Offering care to children in the places that they spend the most of their time- at school and in the community- will further increase our ability to prevent dental decay.

• Equal access to fluoride in community water. Like calcium strengthens bones, fluoride keeps teeth healthy and strong. With an average cost of 50 cents per person per year, water fluoridation also saves millions in dental treatment and insurance costs. 

It is a challenge to think of eradicating the most common, chronic childhood disease, but the fact is- we have the solutions. We just need your help to convince our decision makers to implement them in our communities.  The Watch Your Mouth campaign is working with towns and cities all around the state to help people understand the importance of oral health care for children. 

For more information on the Watch Your Mouth campaign, or to get your community involved go to their web-site at www.watchyourmouth.org. 

Charles Joffe-Halpern is the executive director of Ecu-Health Care and the president of the Board of Directors of Health Care for All in Boston. He can be reached at cjoffehalpern@nbhealth.org.

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