SEATTLE, -- Each year tens of millions of dollars are invested in Dental health research and innovations, but it often takes many years before the results arrive at most dental offices or even impact patient care. A new Institute for Oral Health launched today by health care best intends to bridge this gap.
Headquartered in Seattle, the Institute was created to accelerate the development and adoption of progressive treatment guidelines and release methods for health care policy makers, the dental line of work and the public. The Institute's mission is to boost the use of innovations that would make the U.S. dental care system more effective, more cost well-organized and widely accessible.
"The Institute for Oral Health is a new voice for advancing dental care delivery," said Cathye Smithwick, IOH optional faculty member and Principal with Mercer Health and Benefits. "It's the first time nationally-recognized experts from academia, dental investigate and public health have joined with commercial dental carriers and purchasers in a public forum to advance how dental care is delivered."
WAILUKU - Indigent Maui County residents might be smiling if they're able to take advantage of a new state dental service program to kick off in July.
Human Services Director Lillian Koller said the new program is being established in part because of the lobbying efforts of Maui residents who complained about the lack of contact to dental care on island.
Koller, along with Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino, appeared before the Governor's Maui Council of Advisors during a three-hour meeting Thursday at the Cameron Center auditorium.
A crowd of some 60 people attended, most of who were adults in a mental illness services program who had pleaded to the governor's council for help in accessing dental care. The problem stems back to 1997, when state budget-cutting measures stripped dental care from the federal/state-funded Medicaid program for individuals 22 years and older. Medicaid would cover dental services only for those with serious dental emergencies.
Most Maui dentists declined to accept Medicaid patients anyway as of the low reimbursements for treatment.
Koller reported to the governor's council on Thursday that she believed a new initiative called Prevent Adult Dental Decay would assist alleviate the problem.
It is predictable that there is only one dentist for every 4,000 (up to 7,000) people in our collar of the woods.
The people in United States fare slightly better, with one dentist to 1,800 people. In Britain, there are not enough dentists in the National Health Service, with more public health dentists affecting into private practice, as reported in a New York Times article titled 'In a Dentist Shortage, British (Ouch) Do It Themselves'.
"The public either doesn't have the education, the awareness or there just aren't enough dentists," says Prof John Thomas, a microbiologist with the Departments of Pathology and Aerodonetics, West Virginia University in US.
Lack of social consciousness is definitely a piece of the puzzle. "We have never thought that dental care is a fraction of our healthcare system, and yet we do more to alter the flora of this (he points to his mouth) than anywhere else," Prof Thomas remarks.
Poor oral hygiene results not only in oral troubles, but also other systemic diseases of the body. "If you have access to healthcare, which could absolutely include dental care, then (these diseases should not occur)."
It's all part of a mindset that Prof Thomas is stressed to change. "The perception is, if you lose a tooth, who cares?"
"Now we're realizing that the cost to the healthcare system is really increased if you don't take care of your oral hygiene."
Diseases of teeth and gums cause harmful pathogens to come in the bloodstream and invade the body and very important organs and this is proving to be a serious problem for those who are poorly or frail, and especially for that undergoing heart surgery.
A Medicare rebated consultation would get the patient some antibiotics, painkillers and blood tests but not a tooth extraction, which is causing their sickness.
Recent research shows that large numbers of elderly people are pain from malnutrition, and while some of this might be due to poor diet, researchers recommended that federally funded dental services require to be reinstated, as a priority.
Of course the Federal Government will respond by saying the states must take care of this now that they have the GST money.
There seems to be no effectual public dental care in Wodonga, and in Albury the public dental clinic almost ceased operation when the only part-time dentist went on leave.
NSW lays claim to having a larger economy than Singapore and Malaysia and even several times that of New Zealand and yet the elderly, ill, disabled and psychiatric patients are ignored.
There is something barbaric about this approach to the allocation of resources.
By next year, a handful of underinsured children in the Oshkosh school district would be able to open wide for a dental exam and cleaning.
The dental exams are a new venture by the school district's Kids Care program to help meet the dental health needs for uninsured or even underinsured students with dental health needs. The exams would be funded with award money given back to the program by Linda Stoikes, a nurse practitioner in the district.
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh College of Nursing awarded Stoikes with its Nightingale Award for her Nursing Practice. She received the award and a $1,000 cash prize that she gave back to Kids Care for the dental care program.
"I just felt that money should be put back into the community," Stoikes said. "This is a need. We see kids that don't even have toothbrushes and don't know anything about dental hygiene."
Stoikes is hoping that the $1,000 would be able to provide vouchers for about 10 students to get a dental exam and cleaning.
The Kids Care program routinely sees about 150-200 students a school year, providing physical examinations for sports, wellness exams and medical care for illnesses like ear infections for children whose families require insurance or access to a family physician.
Kids Care began about eight years ago, Stoikes said, to help keep students healthy and in school.
"Quality of life without dental care is awful," Whitman said. "It's hard enough being a kid with perfect health and dental care."
"It's also their health... they miss school, they are in pain. Their diet is affected," Whitman said. "It's got to be hard to study and have your tooth pounding."
If the dental exams through Kids Care works well, Stoikes said, grant funding may be available in the future to expand the program.
"We don"t have dental care for anybody who's underinsured," Stoikes said. "There's just no help for them."
Good dental care from start is essential for your child, as improper cars of your kids teeth can led for permanent trouble. Here are some tips on how to care for your child's teeth, good manners of the American Academy of Family Physicians: Beginning at birth, quietly run a damp cloth along your baby's gums after each feeding.
Once a baby tooth appears, brush it twice a day with a soft, baby toothbrush and a pea-sized quantity of baby toothpaste. This should be done up to age 4.
Once two teeth come in that touch each other begin to floss your child's teeth each day.
Your baby should have her first dentist appointment within six months of her first tooth, or by her first birthday.
Avoid giving your baby sugary or sticky foods, and don't propel her to bed with a bottle of juice, milk or formula. The sugars in these beverages will stick to her teeth and can cause decay
LONDON - NHS dentists are all becoming a dying breed and patients are increasingly being forced to pay for private work that many are finding could be a very expensive business.
A survey of dental professionals this month by the British Dental Association (BDA) found that 91 percent of those responding predicted access to NHS treatment would worsen.
A BDA spokesman said: "It is not a case of not being able to register with an NHS dentist -- there is no registration now. It is more the case that it will prove very difficult to get an NHS appointment. There are just inadequate numbers of NHS practitioners."
All of which has been good news for providers of dental insurance.
One of the biggest, Denplan, says that by so far this year, over 210,000 patients have registered with it, roughly the same number as in the whole of 2005.
The cost of dental care varies from patient to patient actually depending on the work required but even routine courses of treatment run into hundreds of pounds.
David Wylie, a marketing consultant is working in the City of London, is one who had to fund emergency dental work himself as he had no dental cover to fall back on.
"I was quoted a bill from a City dental practice of just over 1,000 pounds for a porcelain inlay for two broken back teeth," he said
Too often, Dr. Brian Parker's dental office in the Hanover receives calls from people who have not seated in a dentist's chair in years.
The people's medical doctors have told them they should have their oral infections cleared before receiving heart operations or even radiation treatment, said Erica Parker, Brian's wife and office manager.
"It's a real problem ...," she said. "We could have done this, this and this ..."
In some cases because of the timeline for the medical operation, the only choice is to pull out the teeth, she said.
Brian Parker said whatever work they could do, whether it involves removing teeth or even not, they have been able to reduce the risk a patient's oral infection poses to the success of the other medical treatments.
Infections in the mouth could affect the health of the rest of the body, he said. Studies are posing theories as to why.
Theories include that bacteria and the chemicals released by chronic, low-grade inflammation - such as what is actually found in gum disease - could travel into the bloodstream, said Dr. Sally Cram, a Washington, D.C. periodontist and spokeswoman for the American Dental Association. Cram treats patients who normally have diseases of the gum.
The predominant theory is the chemical C-reactive protein could inflame blood vessels. When blood vessels break away, they might move to the heart and brain, leading to heart attacks and strokes, Cram said. Other theories link bacteria in the mouth to those heart and brain events, she said.
Both Cram and Parker said these theories require more research. They said this emerging research is another reason why people should take care of their teeth and mouth.
Gum disease could make it difficult for diabetics to control their disease, and in pregnant women, it could lead to premature births and low-birth-weight babies, Parker said.
The Parkers will like to establish links in the community between doctors and dentists.
Erica Parker said she will like to see a question on medical histories at doctors' offices asking patients when the last time they saw a dentist was.
They say age is no reason to stop seeing a dentist, either.
Some people in their 50s say they are too old for dental care, Erica Parker said.
"We say, 'Wouldn't you like to have your mouth in good condition so you are comfortable the next 15 years?" she said.
Utah politics is an amazing thing. It could cause its practitioners to hoist the banner of fiscal responsibility one minute, and walk away from human responsibility the next.
The position of Senate President John Valentine, which there is no room in the state's budget to renew Medicaid vision and also for dental coverage for 65,000 older, blind and disabled Utah's. And perhaps more accurately, that there is no consensus among lawmakers to find the necessary $4 million in a budget that had been touted as carrying a $1 billion surplus.
Valentine has some thing credibility when he talks about the budget. He has been one of the few questioning the irresponsible tide of politicians rushing to cut taxes. But his willingness to give up on this small bit of assistance to the some folks in great need, just for the sake of consensus, is not so much civility as weakness.
Beyond the very real human suffering that would result from the July 1 expiration of the vision and more dental benefits, the argument that the decision is responsible budgeting is simply not true.
Refusing to spend the necessary $4 million on those benefits would cause the state to turn down three times that much in federal matching funds that will be available. And the refusal to help people a little now only increases the need to help them a lot later.
School children in the Northern Kentucky who don't visit a dentist might soon have access to dental care.
At least that is the hope of medical professionals at Health Point Family Care in Newport.
The nonprofit health care organization announced Tuesday a $260,000 grant from the Stillson Foundation administered through Fifth Third Bank for a traveling van for provide dental care to children at area schools. Health Point had launched a fundraising campaign to raise an additional $260,000 to buy and equip the $500,000 mobile dentist office.
Many people in Kentucky do not get adequate dental care, said Chris Goddard, chief executive officer of Health Point.
Forty-seven percent of children in Northern Kentucky have early childhood cavities between the ages of 2 and 6, compared to 16 percent nationwide, according to the Kentucky Children's Oral Health Survey from the University of Kentucky.
"There was no way with the current Medicaid system that private dentists can see all the kids," Goddard said. "The reimbursement is so poor. They cannot afford to see too many."
The bus will hopefully fill that gap, Goddard said.
The van will go to schools in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties, where 45 percent of the student population gets free and reduced lunches.
The dental care will be open to all students in the school. Goddard said he hopes to have the van ready by January or February.
For the most part, the community clinics simply don't have the resources to take on these two components of health care.
"The whole mental health system has collapsed," said John Duke, clinic director of the Portland nonprofit Outside In.
And that collapse is being felt most acutely in the emergency departments of the local hospitals. Untreated dental and also mental health conditions are the two main reasons uninsured people show up at emergency departments with acute problems, Gratto said.
Most of the Portland area's mental health clinics are actually run under the auspices of Cascadia Behavioral Health Care. Eighty percent of the people Cascadia serves are insured - by the Oregon Health Plan - according to Cascadia's chief executive officer, Leslie Ford.
"There just isn't money to treat uninsured mentally ill people in the Portland area,"Ford said.
What sort of a beautiful society do we have when healthy teeth are considered to be a not obligatory extra? Diseases of teeth and gums actually cause harmful pathogens to enter the bloodstream and invade the body and play vital organs and this is proving to be a grave problem for those who are ill or frail, and especially for that undergoing heart surgery. A Medicare rebated consultation would get the patient some antibiotics, painkillers and also blood tests but not a tooth extraction that is causing their illness. Recent research shows that large numbers of elderly people are really suffering from malnutrition, and while some of this might be due to poor diet, researchers recommended that federally funded dental services need to be reinstated, as a priority. Of course the Federal Government would respond by saying the states must take care of this now that they have the GST money. There seems not to be effective public dental care in Wodonga, and in Albury the public dental clinic almost ceased operation when the only part-time dentist went on leave. NSW lays claim to having a superior economy than Singapore and Malaysia and numerous times that of New Zealand and yet the elderly, ill, disabled and psychiatric patients are ignored. There is something barbaric about this approach to the allocation of resources.
Bad, emotionally wrenching things happen some times in life, whether car accidents, health ailments or may be death. That's why people buy insurance--so a bad event doesn't spiral into the financial disaster too. But everybody may not necessarily buy the same types of insurance. Requirements for most people depend on what stage of life they are in present. Here are insurance concerns specific to many childless, single people who are under age 30. But they can apply to other age groups, too. Much of the advice comes from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that has a useful consumer site at www.insureuonline.org. Auto insuranceIf you're still in high school, good grades can lower your insurance premiums. And if you're away at college and only drive on weekends, you should qualify for lower rates because you drive less. Try to stay on your parents' auto policy as long as possible. It would be cheaper than obtaining your own insurance. If you drive a beater, consider dropping collision coverage. A rule of thumb is to drop collision and comprehensive coverage when your car's retail value falls to about $2,500. "Don't carry coverage's you don't really need," said Iuppa, who dropped collision on his 1988 Saab for that reason Health insurancePart of being young is a good feeling invincible, and its true young people are less likely to a have health problems. Maybe that's why a recent NAIC survey found one-fifth and young singles indicated they would decline employer health insurance to save money. That's a bad idea. "Young, single people are susceptible to getting hurt," Iuppa said. "They tend to engage in more active and more extreme sports, and the likelihood of injury is perhaps greater."
Disability, not lifeThe good news is many young, childless singles may need life insurance. If you died, nobody would suffer during financial hardship, except your parents, who would have to pay funeral and also burial expenses. What you need instead is long-term disability insurance, which would pay a portion of your salary if you're unable to work because of the sickness and injury. Statistics show you're far more likely to become disabled than die during your working years. And singles don't have the working spouse who can pay the bills if they are laid up. Buy all the disability insurance you could through your employer because buying it on your own will be a lot more expensive.
CHILDREN and low-income earners might have to pay for dental care they now get free, under a good proposal to introduce fees for the state's public dental patients. The Chief Dental Officer, Clive Wright, said NSW Health were investigating such a change, which proposes that free public treatment normally be limited to children younger than nine. Under proposals based on recommendations by a parliamentary investigation the Government will still continue to pay private dentists to see public patients but a co-payment would be charged. However, the fees, from $25 to $42 for a general check-up, might be waived for people who were disabled or too poor to pay. "We are looking at the sort of person that can actually budget and get this care through the private system," Dr Wright told the Herald. "Some people can be eligible in our system, such as seniors, who might actually be asset rich and also be cashed up but have the time and are eligible for the public system. So they will take it." Dr Wright said NSW Health was responding to recommendations previous this year by an upper house inquiry into the feasibility of payments for public dental services. This found that spending on dental care in NSW was the buck in the nation and the Government had failed to reduce waiting lists or reverse a lack of dentists. "Our problem is trying to spread the amount of money that we have to those that are in greatest need," he said. "Dental health is an important part of general health and there will be no compromises for nought-to-eight-year-olds. If we can provide additional programs for nought-to-eight-year-olds, the short-term gains for the individuals and the long-term gains for general health would be a really good health investment."
A Survey on Dental care access conducted by researchers at University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College presents a sad picture of the dental needs and cause barriers to dental care faced by seniors. The sobering results showed only 11 percent of 273 respondents had dental insurance. Not surprisingly out of them 52 percent blamed financial need as the greatest barrier to have dental care. "Little is known about the dental care needs of urban-versus-rural-dwelling seniors in this part of New York State," said Zittel-Palamara. "Earlier research indicated that seniors who live in rural areas have less access to dental care than urban-dwelling contemporaries. The survey by the researchers were administered to attendees at senior center and nutrition sites in the eight countries of Western New York by social work graduate dental student, faculty and staff. One-third of respondents were of urbal areas and two-third of rural area. The median age was 74. Results showed that access to dental care was rated "fair-to-poor" by 1 in 3 respondents. Nearly three-fourths -- 71 percent -- of urban dwellers indicated they had seen a dentist within the past year, compared to 58 percent of rural dwellers. Twenty percent of rural dwellers and 15 percent of urban dwellers had not seen a dentist for six or more years. Zittel-Palamara said" the ultimate goal of the study is to encourage dentists to integrate social workers and other disciplines into their practices to help senior patients obtain better access to dental care". In addition, the study aims to spur development of programs to help seniors get dental insurance, she said, and to Establish the need for a mobile dental van to serve local senior-center sites.
(Hartford-AP, Apr. 30, 2006 10:50 AM) _ Dental advocates said they're disappointed a budget compromise reached by the Governor Rell and Democrats doesn't include any money to improve dental care. Monette Goodrich of the Connecticut Health Foundation says The Day of New London that few private dentists would serve children with the state health insurance because reimbursement rates are very low. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote today on the sixteen-point-one billion dollar budget compromise that was reached yesterday. But the budget does not include ten million dollars for increase dental reimbursement rates for the first time during 1993. Currently, the state pays 17 dollars to a private dentist who actually examines a child with state health insurance. That would have increased to 37 dollars under the plan. Dental clinics that serve low-income patients had long waiting lists, and many are operating at a deficit.
Austin Ross hopped from the chair, the drilling and then scraping at an end.
"It didn't hurt that much - except for the needle," the 9-year-old said of the visit to the dentist.
It will really hurt his parents - who, like millions of Americans, have no dental insurance - had Saturday not been "Smile-a-bration," a day of free dental work for 2,700 uninsured children in Colorado.
About 450 kids in the Pikes Peak region received free care from 14 dentists. It was organized by Delta Dental Plan of Colorado.
The dental benefits network started the event four years ago in response to the growing number of children without
"We see an awful lot of kids who have never seen a dentist before they come in for Smile-a-bration," said Kate Paul, CEO of Delta Dental.
Austin's mother, Heather Ross, said the family had dental insurance until six months ago, when her husband left the Army.
The cost of dental insurance at his new job is too high for the family of five.
"It's just too expensive," Ross said. "Our last visit we paid out of pocket and luckily they had no cavities."
She had to spend two hours on hold on the phone to arrange Saturday's appointment, after her kids received notices of the free care through school. Every treatment slot in Colorado eventually was filled.
Dentist Nelly Barreto, of Perfect Teeth on Constitution Avenue, had 22 patients signed up for free care Saturday.
"We know they need some work, almost all of them," Barreto said. "We'll try to figure out where it most hurts."
"We're barely making it. The money I make covers the rent and sometimes the utilities," she said. "There are a lot of people out there having a hard time."
Despite his lackadaisical brushing, the only work Adam needed was having a spacer removed.
But it still hurt, and asked afterwards if he liked the visit, he replied, "Not really."
Among kids, the reaction is not unusual. But, said Barreto, "They'll appreciate it later"
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