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UK Against Fluoridation

Thursday, February 21, 2008

USA - American Dental Association

AAPD teams up with Head Start New program will help secure dental homes for at-risk children
Posted Feb. 20, 2008
By Stacie Crozier
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and Head Start are teaming up to help establish dental homes for young children enrolled in Head Start.
The AAPD Head Start Dental Home Initiative will be publicly announced Feb. 28 with a press conference in Washington. The initiative will create a national network of dentists to provide dental homes for Head Start and Early Head Start children, said Dr. John S. Rutkauskas, AAPD executive director.
"AAPD and Head Start are partnering at the national, regional, state and local levels to develop a national network of dentists to link Head Start children with dental homes," said Dr. Rutkauskas. "Dental homes mean that children's oral health care is delivered by dentists to children through an ongoing relationship that is comprehensive, continuously accessible, coordinated and family-centered."
The five-year project includes five key components:
providing project leadership administration and organizational support;
providing oral health expertise and technical advice;
developing networks of dentists to provide access to dental homes;
training dentists to enhance their capability to meet the oral health needs of young children and their understanding of Head Start and Early Head Start programs;
enhancing HS/EHS oral health staff training and parent education programs.
"I believe the Head Start Dental Home Initiative represents a remarkable opportunity to assemble networks of dentists to provide quality dental homes for children enrolled in Head Start programs across the U.S.," said Dr. Jim Crall, project director.
"In the process, we will be providing training to enable dentists to better meet the oral health care needs of young children and help Head Start programs understand what they can do to help reduce dental disease among young, at-risk children.
"Given Head Start's long-standing emphasis on comprehensive child development services and parental education," added Dr. Crall, "this initiative provides a 'best case scenario' for reducing oral health disparities in young children and establishing the foundation for a lifetime of good oral health."
"Tooth decay is the most common chronic childhood disease," said Dr. Keith Morley, AAPD president. "It's five times more common than asthma, and the No. 1 unmet health care need among Head Start children."
Among Head Start children, he said, decay rates often range from 30 to 40 percent of 3-year-olds and 50-60 percent of 4-year-olds, significantly higher than caries rates for children in general across the nation.
Some of the challenges that face Head Start programs in securing access to care, said Jan Connelly, project manager, include:
reluctance by many general dentists to provide services for preschool-age children, especially in states where there is significant dissatisfaction with dental Medicaid programs;
dentists' lack of familiarity with Head Start and Early Head Start program goals, objectives and resources;
overcoming transportation and other barriers;
engaging parents in educational opportunities and encouraging them to follow up with needed treatments for children.
Johnson and Johnson is supporting this effort by donating critical dollars to Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children: The Foundation of the AAPD to support development of educational material.
"The formation of partnerships at the national, regional, state and local level will ultimately help families learn how to prevent tooth decay and how to establish a foundation for a lifetime of oral health," said Ms. Connelly.

After 60 years of water fluoridation reaching 2/3 of Americans on public water supplies and virtually 100% via the food and beverage supply, "Among Head Start children, he said, decay rates often range from 30 to 40 percent of 3-year-olds and 50-60 percent of 4-year-olds, significantly higher than caries rates for children in general across the nation." Posted by NYSCOF

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