- 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. 2, issue 7
September 2007
Greetings!
Welcome back! September is here and the end of summer is just around the corner (but don't be sad, you can still squeeze in one last beach trip!). As the fall foliage begins to bloom, you can look forward to our upcoming Watch Your Mouth Campaign trainings, meetings and events (TBA) planned for this beautiful season.
September also brings a new member to the Watch Your Mouth Campaign, and that's me, Czarina Biton. As the new Campaign Coordinator for Watch Your Mouth Massachusetts, I am very excited to be a part of this great campaign and I look forward to working with you! I am new to the oral health world, but no stranger to advocacy and policy. I worked for Community Catalyst, a national non-profit advocacy organization, for almost three years. I plan to bring my job experiences to the Watch Your Mouth Campaign, but I also look forward to learning from our many knowledgeable campaign partners, advocates and friends like you. If you have any questions for me or just want to say hello, I can be reached at biton@hcfama.org or 617.275.2838. See you at the next event or training!
A lot has been happening this summer! In this issue, you will find some of the updates and resources we would like to share with you. There are two great resources that came out in the past month: a fact sheet on children's oral health from the Kaiser Family Foundation and a report from the California which highlights the importance of including dental benefits in health care reform efforts. We also have a list of upcoming events. So please scroll on!
Boosting Access to Health Insurance = Increasing Dental Coverage to Children
The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured recently created a useful fact sheet on children's oral health for community advocates. This resource brings attention to the importance of increasing access to quality health insurance in order to improve children's oral health.
Dental Coverage and Care for Low-Income Children: The Role of Medicaid and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) revealed that both insured and uninsured children equally face problems getting dental care. The fact sheet says that children enrolled in some form of public coverage fair better than their uninsured counterparts; however, dental benefits (specifically for SCHIP) are optional, resulting in many children not receiving the dental services they need. Nationally, access to dental care through Medicaid is unevenly distributed across the country. With limited participation of dentists in Medicaid and SCHIP, many rural area residents have to travel further to find dental care or forgo it altogether because it is not available. These are all issues familiar to Massachusetts.
On the bright side, the fact sheet highlights the importance of the community solutions we love so much and makes several recommendations to increase access to dental care for children. These include: "expanding community health centers in medically underserved areas, providing grants to increase the number of pediatric dentist, developing prevention programs for high-risk populations, and improving efforts to track children's health."
Overall, we know that oral health is critical to overall health. We also know that while dental disease is the most common infectious disease of childhood, it is also among the most preventable. It is nice to see Kaiser produce a comprehensive fact sheet for national advocates. To read the fact sheet, click here
California Foundation Report Highlights Importance of Dental in Health Care Reform
Massachusetts leads the nation in reforming state health care. Our new law and the health insurance products that have been created because of it are impressive accomplishments, unfortunately dental was largely left out of these new plans. Only members of Commonwealth Care who fall into the lowest income category are eligible for dental coverage. Clearly this is an issue of concern for Watch Your Mouth and our friends!
The Dental Health Foundation of California recently published a report called, "Putting Teeth into Health Care Reform." This report is another great resource for advocates to use and helps to explain the importance of including dental benefits in health care reform efforts. Click here to read more about this important report!
Looking forward to meeting all of you soon,
Czarina Biton
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Watch Your Mouth Massachusetts is supported by grants from the Oral Health Foundation and Dental Services of Massachusetts.
Watch Your Mouth Coalition.
