The children's dental crisis in North Philadelphia
Jan Shaeffer
POSTED: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013, 5:30 AM
Today’s guest blogger is Jan Shaeffer, the president of St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children. She can be reached at jss@scfchildren.org.
The first time I stepped from Erie Avenue onto our Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, I met a child who was experiencing some of the worst tooth decay I have ever seen. His gums were swollen and red. The few baby teeth poking out from his infected gums were riddled with cavities. His face was scrunched up with fear and pain. The worst part? He was barely a year old.
That little boy’s face has stayed with me ever since – and, in many ways, he has become the symbol for the work St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children does every day in North Philadelphia. Our dentists, volunteers and program leaders witness some of the most critical health and wellness challenges among children and their families in forgotten pockets of the city – places where the news cameras tend to tread only when there’s loss or violence.
But the truth is – the health crisis I witnessed that day is a chronic issue that permeates much of our community, a community that’s contending with an enormous dearth of basic resources and far too little education. We’re seeing more children younger than this boy with severe tooth decay. More than 30 percent of the kids being treated by our Care Mobile have untreated tooth decay younger than the age of three.
In fact, 25 percent of American children between the ages of two and five are suffering from dental disease. In neighborhoods like North Philly – that number increases to 80 percent, most of which goes untreated....
Fluoridated USA.
POSTED: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013, 5:30 AM
Today’s guest blogger is Jan Shaeffer, the president of St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children. She can be reached at jss@scfchildren.org.
The first time I stepped from Erie Avenue onto our Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, I met a child who was experiencing some of the worst tooth decay I have ever seen. His gums were swollen and red. The few baby teeth poking out from his infected gums were riddled with cavities. His face was scrunched up with fear and pain. The worst part? He was barely a year old.
That little boy’s face has stayed with me ever since – and, in many ways, he has become the symbol for the work St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children does every day in North Philadelphia. Our dentists, volunteers and program leaders witness some of the most critical health and wellness challenges among children and their families in forgotten pockets of the city – places where the news cameras tend to tread only when there’s loss or violence.
But the truth is – the health crisis I witnessed that day is a chronic issue that permeates much of our community, a community that’s contending with an enormous dearth of basic resources and far too little education. We’re seeing more children younger than this boy with severe tooth decay. More than 30 percent of the kids being treated by our Care Mobile have untreated tooth decay younger than the age of three.
In fact, 25 percent of American children between the ages of two and five are suffering from dental disease. In neighborhoods like North Philly – that number increases to 80 percent, most of which goes untreated....
Fluoridated USA.
posted by Bill at
9:56 AM
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