Kentucky Fighting to Save Children’s Teeth (KY)
June 24, 2010
There’s an old joke about how we know the toothbrush was invented in Kentucky: Anywhere else, and it would have been called a “teeth” brush. But like a lot of other negative stereotypes, the image of the toothless Kentucky hillbilly is sadly based upon an unfortunate reality. Kentuckians have some of the worth dental health in the nation.
In 2004, Kentucky led the nation in missing teeth among people age 65 or older, and some 27 percent of Kentuckians of all ages had lost six or more teeth to decay or gum disease compared to 18 percent in the rest of the nation. Earlier in the decade, a comprehensive assessment of the state’s dental health coordinated by the Department for Public Health found that half of Kentucky’s children had decay in their primary teeth and that 46.8 percent of children ages 2, 3 and 4 had untreated dental problems, more than twice the national average.
Happily, help may be on the way. On Wednesday, Governor Steve Beshear announced two rounds of federal grant funding totaling more than $200,000 that will allow 24 counties to create community coalitions aimed at improving dental health among children throughout east ern Kentucky and other areas of the state. “I am pleased to announce another step in our effort to aggressively focus on improving dental health for children in Eastern Kentucky by providing special resources to begin to address this long-standing issue,” Gov. Beshear said at an announcement at the Pike County Health Department. “These two rounds of funding will allow 23 areas that applied for grants to begin targeted efforts to improve dental health in Kentucky. Our children deserve a healthy start in life, and that must include good dental care.
The announced awards are a component of the groundbreaking three-year initiative Gov. Beshear announced in fall 2009 with a goal of improving quality and access to dental care across the region, using $1.6 million in federal funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The other major component of the initiative involves developing specialized training for dentists in pediatric techniques and providing training to increase the number of dental providers who treat children.
The first series of grants being awarded through the ARC and the Kentucky Oral Health Program in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) will provide $10,000 in start-up funding for oral health community coalitions in the following ARC-designated distressed counties: Estill, Floyd, Hart, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Lewis, Magoffin, Menifee, Metcalfe, Monroe, Robertson and Whitley.
The second series of grant awards is funded through HRSA’s Targeted State MCH Oral Health Services Systems (TOHSS) program, which supports the state’s capacity to expand preventive and restorative oral health service programs for Medicaid and KCHIP eligible children, as well as other underserved children and families. The following grantees will receive $10,000 of TOHSS seed funding: Boyd, Frank lin, Jefferson, Jessamine, Logan, Madison, Marshall, Pike and Woodford counties, as well as the Madisonville area and the Purchase District Health Department.
The ultimate goals of both grants are to assure access to needed dental treatment and will begin developing the partnerships needed to help assure that dental providers and services are available.
Joining in on this war on cavities is a volunteer group of University of Louisville dental students, who spent the weekend of June 19 in eastern Kentucky bringing their talents to the mountains. The students were in Pikeville to provide dental services through a medical non-profit called RAM, which stands for Remote Area Medical. This was the third year for the free medical clinic in Pikeville.
RAM serves people in remote areas of the United States, as well as around the world. Hundreds of people stood in line for medical, dental, and visual check-ups on Saturday and Sunday. More than 150 University of Louisville students, faculty, and alumni volunteered. Dr. John Sauk, the dean of the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, told WHAS-11: “This was a great experience for our students to be able to understand this portion of the state, and get a lot of experience clinically at the same time."