children avoid early caries they could prevent the pain and
suffering that many of these same parents experienced as
young children. If parents could have the dental I.Q. to know
not to give a bottle of juice to an infant while falling asleep,
or make a point of getting to a dentist for an exam, they
could be giving their children an invaluable gift.
If parents could help their children make good food
choices and brush regularly so much pain and suffering could
be avoided. More importantly, if these communities had
better oral health literacy there would not be such an outcry
for public monies for the treatment of dental disease. The
Saskatchewan government paid First Nation more than
$500,000 during 2011 for sedation and dental care for 800
children. If the childhood caries rate was significantly lower,
the monies could be used for other health initiatives and
there would be less pain and suffering for the young children.
The problems facing families of these northern tier territories
of Canada are really just snapshots of what’s going on in the
United States. Maybe the problems are not as severe in our
large cities and rural communities as those described above,
but just imagine what is going to happen as funding is cut
further for federal and state programs for dental care. Imagine
what old dental problems are going to resurface as many
communities opt to discontinue water fluoridation. Imagine
what is going to happen as fewer people are offered work-
related dental insurance and imagine what is going to happen
as the cost of dental care continues to rise. Children are once
again going to have rampant caries at an early age. Parents
will feel the pain of economic decision making. Choices like
what foods to buy and when to see the physician or the
dentist become difficult choices. When a child complains of
a toothache, will the parent make an appointment with the
dentist or tell the child that they can't see the dentist because
they can’t afford it? Will the parent settle for store-bought
Ambesol to relieve the symptoms?
Lawmakers argue that there is not enough money in the
public pot to cover the cost of dental care. In October 2011,
Pennsylvania and other states stopped offering the few
dental services it did offer to adults and limited the dental
care covered for children. All across Pennsylvania adults that
were previously covered under state medical assistance were
no longer eligible for many types of dental care. 2 What do you
see as the end result of denial of benefits? More pain, more
suffering, more infections, more hospitalization, more
medications more emergency procedures.
What if we could get a do-over? Not just in Pennsylvania,
but across the country. What if we could bring oral health
literacy to the current generation of young parents? Teach
them how important it would be to start their children caries
free. Don’t share utensils and spread oral disease, learn to
brush and floss, seek care for early dental problems, all of the
basic building blocks of oral health literacy. This type of
education is expensive and requires many years to get a
foothold. It seems to have worked with smoking. Fewer adults
and adolescents smoke now than in recent history. The
message got to this generation. The message of oral health
literacy can also reach a generation, but it requires effort on
the part of dentists and dental organizations. It also requires
no more negative comments from lawmakers and anti-
fluoride activists. Our message must get through in order to
combat this plague. We must yell and shout louder than
anyone else around us.
—BRT
Read more:
1. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/
lost+children/6171844/story.html#ixzz1n4VAjOfH
2. http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/provider/doingbusinesswithdpw/
dentalcareproviderinfo
Dr. Bruce Terry of Wayne served as editor of the
Pennsylvania Dental Journal from 2008-2016.
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