UF dentist joins fight to eliminate a childhood problem that has not gone away

Across the nation , many organizations are celebrating Children’s Dental Health Month. But one University of Florida dentist wants to get the word out that there is little to celebrate about the oral health of Florida’s children.

“Florida’s children are falling through the cracks when it comes to access to oral health and treatment of oral health problems,” said Dr. Frank J. Courts, an associate professor and chair of pediatric dentistry at the UF College of Dentistry. “We are living in a time when vaccination and early childhood prevention have all but eliminated many communicable childhood infectious diseases, yet dental decay, a preventable condition, still affects many of our children.”

So Courts, in cooperation with the Florida Dental Association, has authored a proposal that will be introduced to the Florida Legislature this spring that may help diminish the problem of access to care. “There is a shortage of pediatric dentists in the nation and Florida,” said Courts. “We need to attract more child-oriented dentists to the state. The proposal offers loan assistance to dentists to establish practices and provide services in underserved areas of Florida.

Dentists also would obtain assistance in repaying their student loans if they take on Medicaid patients.”

Courts also is participating in the American Dental Education Association’s efforts to educate policy-makers so that they will take action to improve the oral health of children.

Last year, for the first time ever, the U.S. surgeon general’s office produced a report on oral health. The comprehensive “Oral Health in America” report indicates that dental decay is the most common infectious disease for the nation’s children. More than 25 percent of kindergartners have active decay and by the age of 17, more than 70 percent have experienced dental decay.

“The range of severity in children’s dental decay in tremendous,” Courts said. “While many children have only minor problems, increasing numbers of children have severe decay. Chronic and acute pain, poor nutritional status, low self-esteem and even missed school days often result from this disease. In some instances, life-threatening infections may result from ‘just cavities in the baby teeth.’”

Courts stressed that children from lower income families are at higher risk for severe oral health problems. In a recent study conducted by the UF College of Dentistry, more than 20 percent of children enrolled in Head Start had significant early decay and were at high risk for oral pain and infection. Although Medicaid covers almost all dental care needs of these children, access and lack of prevention education appear to be the culprits.

Child health-care advocates are hoping that a new dental package initiative launched this month through Florida Healthy Kids (a Florida Legislature backed public-private initiative to improve access to comprehensive health insurance for the state's uninsured children) will help reach children whose families don’t qualify for Medicaid. Florida Healthy Kids does provide dental services in Alachua County.

On the tails of the surgeon general’s report, the nonprofit advocacy group Oral Health America released a state-by-state dental report card last fall. Florida received an overall “C-” -- one of 24 states to receive a “C-“ or below. North Dakota’s “B-“ earned it the highest grade in the nation.

“What is telling about the report card results is 27 states including Florida, have insufficient data on children,” said Courts, who has provided dental care to Florida’s children for more than 21 years. “But what is clear in many populations in Florida is we need to do better.”

Courts said parental education, along with professional prevention and early treatment programs are the most effective ways to reduce the effects of early childhood decay. The UF pediatric dental department has taken on a grassroots approach to service by providing oral health screenings at daycare centers and church functions. These screenings provide parents with critical information regarding dental decay.

“We need to keep up the initiatives,” Courts said. “The surgeon general’s report has given the dental profession the backing it needs to stress to Florida and the nation’s policy-makers that prevention is the only way that we are going to save our children’s smiles. Until it is understood that prevention is key, we will have to seek out and provide quality service to children in need.”

Parents and organizations that would like more information may contact the department of pediatric dentistry at (352) 392-4131. Health-care professionals who are interested in developing pediatric oral health programs may contact the department for prevention education kits (FCOURTS@dental.ufl.edu).

Read the surgeon general’s report online at www.nidcr.nih.gov/sgr/oralhealth.htm. To read the state-by-state report card visit www.usatoday.com/life/health/general/lhgen094.htm. Find Florida Healthy Kids at www.healthykids.org.

Oral Health America’s Oral Health Report Card on Florida Dental

STATE Florida

REGION SO

Prevention C+

Fluoridation D

State Oral Health Program C

Sealants I

Visits to Dentists- Adult B

Visits to Dentists- Older Persons B

Use of Smokeless Tobacco C

Access to Care D

Prevalence of Dentists C

Prevalence of Dental Clinics D

Medicaid Program D

Dental Insurance Adults I

Dental Insurance Elderly F

Health Status C

Oral Health of Children I

Adult Tooth Loss C

Edentulous Elderly B

Oral Cancer- Male C

Oral Cancer- Female D

State Grade C-