Let's Talk Water Fluoridation this Children's Dental Health Month

In addition to Valentine’s and Presidents’ Days, February also marks National Children’s Dental Health Month, with a theme this year connected to fluoridation.

Dating back to February 1941, the month-long celebration brings together dental professionals, health care providers, educators, policymakers and more stakeholders to promote the benefits of good oral health for children through various activities and events.

This year’s campaign slogan is “Choose Tap Water for a Sparkling Smile,” focusing on the value of fluoridation.

Fluoride combines with enamel on the tooth’s surface to make it stronger, better able to resist decay, and prevent dental caries —the most common chronic disease for children.  

Over the years, research has supported the value of fluoridation:

• In 2013, the U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services found that on average fluoridated water increased the number of people in a community without dental caries by 25 percent. 

• A 2010 American Journal of Public Health article indicated that a child who consumes fluoridated water is less likely to have lost teeth from decay 40 to 50 years later in adulthood. 

Water fluoridation, since it requires passive action to show effect, offers a simple solution to contain total oral health expenditures, improve population health, and set children up to have better oral health as adults.

Water fluoridation benefits the entire community, regardless of status or background, which is critical to addressing ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic barriers to effective oral healthcare—a widespread problem in the United States.

National Institutes of Health data indicates that 20 percent of White, non-Hispanic Americans have untreated tooth decay compared to 40 percent for Black, non-Hispanic Americans and 38 percent for Mexican Americans.

This data also showed that individuals below the federal poverty line (FPL) are almost three times more likely to have untreated decay compared to those making twice the FPL or above.

This makes dental disease a disease of disparities, which can be prevented, in part, by easy and free access to fluoride.

Fluoridated water is an evidence-based, cost-effective path to promote health equity and, as an oral health organization committed to improving the oral health of all, it is just another reason DentaQuest celebrates National Children’s Dental Health Month.

National Children’s Dental Health Month: Our Commitment to Improving the Oral Health of the Next Generation

By Steve Pollock, President and Chief Executive Officer, DentaQuest

This February marks the 75^th annual National Children’s Dental Health Month, bringing together dental and health leaders across the country to raise awareness of and provide tools to improve kids’ oral – and overall – health. We are working hard to address the impact of sugar consumption on children’s long-term oral health with this year’s kid-friendly Sugar Wars campaign, hosted by the American Dental Association.

To help illustrate the importance of this campaign, added sugar consumption among children across the United States accounts for 15 percent of calories every day. This is a full 5 percent higher than the recommendations from the recently-released 2015-2020 U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which indicate that added sugars should account for less than 10 percent of calories daily.

Now, think of the impact this has on their health, ranging from weight gain to nutritional deficiencies to tooth decay. Sugar helps nurture cavity-causing bacteria in the mouth. If left unchecked, sugar intake can lead to significant tooth decay.

 

Would you believe that tooth decay is the most common chronic childhood illness in the United States?

Tooth decay in kids is five times more common than asthma. Today, about 20 percent of children ages 5 to 11 have at least one untreated decayed tooth, and the percentage of children ages 5 to 19 with untreated tooth decay is actually twice as high for those from low-income families – when compared with children from higher-income households.

The implications of childhood tooth decay can carry into adolescence and even adulthood. Not only can childhood tooth decay have long-term effects linked to poor oral health, heart disease and even diabetes, but it also has a significant financial impact on our health care system. This impact can be measured in the millions of dollars we spend as a country on emergency room care for dental issues today or with the long-term financial implications of poor oral health on the treatment of those with certain chronic illnesses.

So, how do we win the Sugar Wars?

Education, access and prevention. We must be advocates for our communities and educate people about the importance of oral health and sugar intake for kids, work with leaders to increase access to care and prioritize preventive dental services that will address these issues head on.

At DentaQuest, we are committed to improving the oral health of our next generation by transforming the systems of care, finance, community and policy to achieve optimal oral health for all. We have already taken steps to achieve this vision by:

• Working with our nation’s leaders to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides vital health coverage to kids across the country who wouldn’t otherwise have much-needed care.
•  Creating and growing the Early Childhood Caries (ECC) Collaborative, a program piloted by the DentaQuest Institute that teaches medical providers about best practices for managing and preventing tooth decay in young children.
• Encouraging our leaders to act on the Oral Health 2020 Goals, which are aggressive, industry-changing charges developed by the DentaQuest Foundation and the Oral Health 2020 national network to improve the oral health of all. Among others, we aim to:
• Eradicate dental disease in children
•  Incorporate oral health into the primary education system

Throughout the month of February and 2016, we are committed to elevating the importance of oral health in children, implementing preventive care models and improving oral health for the next generation.