USA - States slowly make schools require dental exams
States slowly make schools require dental exams
Associated Press
June 2, 2008
ALBANY, N.Y. - Some states are trying to fill in a potentially deadly gap in health care for children by seeking proof of good dental health before they enter school.
New York in September will join seven states and the District of Columbia in adopting school-based measures to ensure dental health. But the existing regulations have weaknesses, the result of political and fiscal compromise to become laws at all. And despite the death of a 12-year-old boy last year in Maryland by brain infection that started as a toothache, many parents aren't taking the effort seriously despite the distraction from school studies and lifelong complications tooth decay can bring.
A recession and diminishing health care coverage can push dental care further down a family's priority, where it may be seen mostly as a cosmetic issue, according to national dental associations.
"I have memories of 10 or 12 times when I panicked when I saw the child," said Dr. Beverly A. Largent, a dentist specializing in children's teeth for 23 years in the rural Kentucky town of Paducah. Especially in poor urban and rural areas nationwide, children often only get dental care when the pain and swelling are too much to bear, she said.
"I have seen children with their eyes swollen shut," said Largent, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. A week ago she was in the hospital treating a child with multiple cavities when she got an emergency call from a mother whose child's face was swollen and had to be taken to the emergency room.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls tooth decay one of the most chronic infectious diseases for children. While tooth decay in all age groups for adults is declining, childhood tooth decay is rising. And children from poor families have twice as much untreated decay as children in wealthier homes................
In fluoridated Paducah, Kentucky:NYSCOF
Associated Press
June 2, 2008
ALBANY, N.Y. - Some states are trying to fill in a potentially deadly gap in health care for children by seeking proof of good dental health before they enter school.
New York in September will join seven states and the District of Columbia in adopting school-based measures to ensure dental health. But the existing regulations have weaknesses, the result of political and fiscal compromise to become laws at all. And despite the death of a 12-year-old boy last year in Maryland by brain infection that started as a toothache, many parents aren't taking the effort seriously despite the distraction from school studies and lifelong complications tooth decay can bring.
A recession and diminishing health care coverage can push dental care further down a family's priority, where it may be seen mostly as a cosmetic issue, according to national dental associations.
"I have memories of 10 or 12 times when I panicked when I saw the child," said Dr. Beverly A. Largent, a dentist specializing in children's teeth for 23 years in the rural Kentucky town of Paducah. Especially in poor urban and rural areas nationwide, children often only get dental care when the pain and swelling are too much to bear, she said.
"I have seen children with their eyes swollen shut," said Largent, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. A week ago she was in the hospital treating a child with multiple cavities when she got an emergency call from a mother whose child's face was swollen and had to be taken to the emergency room.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls tooth decay one of the most chronic infectious diseases for children. While tooth decay in all age groups for adults is declining, childhood tooth decay is rising. And children from poor families have twice as much untreated decay as children in wealthier homes................
In fluoridated Paducah, Kentucky:NYSCOF
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