• 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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Newsletter

Vol. 4, issue 1
January 2009

Fourth Annual Oral Health Heroes Event

oral health heroes

Happy 2009! A brand new year means personal resolutions, accomplishing new goals and attending exciting events.

As we start a new year together, join us for Fourth Annual Oral Health Heroes Event at the State House on February 2, 2009, where we'll honor legislators and community heroes dedicated to improving the oral health status of the Commonwealth. We also ask you to brighten up someone's day by nominating a local hero in your community today. Please scroll on for the nominee application. We hope you can join us on February 2nd!

Also in this issue, read an article on the importance of dental insurance to overall health, check out our book list that will help strengthen your framing skills, and learn more about our partner spotlight for January: Tufts Community Dental Program. Finally, don't forget to check out the left side of the page for new resources, trainings and events.

Join us on February 2nd for the Fourth Annual Oral Health Heroes Event!

In celebration of Children's Dental Health month in February, the Watch Your Mouth Campaign invites you to join us in honoring legislative and community heroes who have made an impact on the oral health status of Massachusetts residents in 2008. At this year's Heroes event, we will honor Senate President Therese Murray (D- Plymouth) and Representative William Smitty Pignatelli (D- Lenox) for their commitment to improving the State's oral health and for their leadership role in moving the oral health omnibus bill (S.2819, An Act to improve, promote and protect the oral health of the Commonwealth). Know a local oral health hero? Our community hero has yet to be determined by our membership (that's you!). We encourage you to nominate individuals, organizations, or groups in your community that have demonstrated the following: Outstanding leadership in oral health advocacy Strong commitment to improving the state of oral in the Commonwealth

Nominations are due by January 11, 2008! There are several ways you can submit a nomination. Please complete an online form or download the form and email or fax your nomination to biton@hcfama.org or 617.451.5838.

We look forward to seeing you on February 2nd. Tp RSVP, please contact Czarina Biton at biton@hcfama.org or 617.275.2838.

Nominate an oral health hero today!

Expanding Access to Dental Insurance Improves Overall Health

kids reading

A community functions well when its residents have access to a full range of services-from electricity and transportation to education and health care. Over two years ago, Massachusetts demonstrated bold leadership when it enacted landmark legislation to transform the state's healthcare system and address the gaps within it, raising the bar on health care for all other states. As highlighted in a recent article published in the Massachusetts' State House News Service, the Commonwealth currently covers nearly every child and has the lowest rate of uninsurance in the country. It is critical that we continue to be innovative in health care reform and advance one important-and often overlooked - aspect of overall health: oral health.

Good oral health is a critical component of good overall health. While many have gained health insurance in the past few years, far too many children in our state still lack an oral health insurance. Uninsured children are less likely to receive the preventive and restorative care they need. The pain experienced as a result of toothache can affect their ability to eat, think and learn. Nationally, children miss 51 million school hours due to oral health problems. This makes it difficult for them to keep up with their peers in school. Moreover, dental disease, if left untreated, can lead to life-long health problems, including heart disease, and diabetes.

Today we know that more than one third of Massachusetts' residents lack dental insurance. The solutions to this issue is well within our grasp. The majority of dental decay is preventable when children have access to protective measures such as regular screenings, dental sealants (thin plastic coatings applied to molar teeth) and fluoride treatments. Insurance plays a big role in prevention, as well. Children with dental insurance are more than twice as likely to receive routine and preventive care than their uninsured peers. For those who have them, dental benefits are extremely successful in promoting oral health and overall health. Further, the cost savings can be significant: routine examinations and cleanings average $75 and up, while a root canal, required to treat a severely decayed tooth, can approach $1,000. By seeing to it that ALL children in Massachusetts have dental coverage, we stand to realize significant health and financial gains now and in the future.

If the mouth is the unguarded gate to the body, then comprehensive dental insurance is one of the key ingredients in building a true health coverage infrastructure. Through its committed leadership, Massachusetts is demonstrating that the healthcare system works best when all citizens can become a part of it. Let's now make sure that every part of the body, including the mouth, is covered.

Refresh Your Framing Skills for the New Year: Book List

stack of books

Bring in the New Year with some good books! The FrameWorks Institute provides advocates with a thorough bibliography of reading about frames, framing and the public's understanding of social issues. Stephen D. Reese defines frames as "organizing principles that are socially shared and persistent over time, that work symbolically to meaningfully structure the social world." Check out some of the books below to read more about the concept of framing and to create a foundation of framing skills. Happy New Year!

1. Argument Culture: Stopping America's War on Words by Deborah Tannen
2. Don't thnk of an Elephant by George Lakoff
3. Metapahors to Live by George Lakoff
4. Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
5. Blink by Malcom Gladwell

January Partner Spotlight: Tufts Community Dental Program

by Kathryn Dolan

Tufts Community Dental Program

In 2004, the Tufts Community Dental Program, a program that delivers on-site dental health services to high-risk populations in schools, Head Start programs, adult day activity centers, sheltered workshops and community residences, piloted the Oral Health Across the Commonwealth project in Boston and Springfield with a grant from the MassHealth Access Program. During the past five years the project has grown to include over 200 communities.

Recently, Tufts University received a multi-year grant from the Oral Health Foundation of Massachusetts to build upon the success of the Oral Health Across the Commonwealth project by expanding the school- based sealant programs in Lowell, Hampden County and Boston.

The focus of the project is to create sustainable, comprehensive community-based oral health care programs for at-risk, underserved communities that will increase access to care and improve the oral health status of children in these communities.

Sealants are recognized as an effective treatment for the prevention of dental decay and along with other primary preventative services help to reduce the incidence of dental disease for a vulnerable group at a time when the intervention can be most effective: in preschool through eighth grade.

Collaboration with other community based oral health programs has been essential to the success of the project. Tufts teams up with Commonwealth Mobile Oral Health Services (CMOHS) at over 300 program sites allowing more than 8000 patients to receive comprehensive dental treatment annually.

Program sites include preschools, Head Start programs, schools and adult programs for the developmentally disabled. Oral health services are provided using portable equipment and include routine dental exams, diagnosis, dental x-rays, dental cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants, restorative dentistry, oral hygiene instruction and recall visits.

Other key partners include the Boston University School of Dental Medicine and Forsyth School for Dental Hygiene for the Smart Smiles Program in Boston Public Schools and Partners for a Healthier Community for the B.E.S.T. Oral Health Program in Hampden County.

The ultimate goal of the project is to ensure good oral health, as it is essential to overall health. Healthy mouths contribute to healthy bodies for a healthy future.To learn more about the Tufts Community Dental Program, contact Kathy Dolan at (617) 291-2217.

Visit Us Online!

Thanks,

Czarina



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