To help you promote Dental Health Awareness Month to parents and care givers, WCI has a webpage with oral care tips for kids of every age (plus pregnant moms!) and three free fun posters to download.

Attached is the news release that went out to area media as well.

Teeth Tips for Infants and Toddlers!  Dental care is important for the entire family!

Caring Hands Dental Clinic is looking for kids, specifically their teeth!  On Kids' Days, a special dentist (called a pedodontist) comes to the Caring Hands Dental Clinic to provide care for children. Call 320-815-5711 for dates available and an appointment. 

Caring Hands Dental Clinic is located at 700 Cedar Street, Suite 44 in Alexandria and is available for children who are covered under PrimeWest Health, Medical Asssistance and MN Care health insurances. 

A flyer is attached.  Share it with a friend!                           

Contact: Nicole Dueffert, 202.552.2274


Washington, DC - 02/23/2010 - An estimated one in five children in America go without dental care each year and two thirds of states do not have effective policies in place to ensure proper dental health and access to care, according to a report by the Pew Center on the States. The Cost of Delay: State Dental Policies Fail One in Five Children, released with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the DentaQuest Foundation, grades each state’s policy responses to the urgent challenges in dental health among America’s low-income children. February is National Children’s Dental Health Month.

"Millions of children go without dental care each year but the good news is, it’s fixable,” said Shelly Gehshan, director of the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign. "By enacting a handful of effective policies, states can help eliminate the long-term health and economic consequences of untreated dental problems among kids. Several states are leading the way—but all states can and must do more to ensure access to dental care for the 17 million children left out of the system.”

Pew scored all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using an A-F scale, on whether and how well they are employing eight proven policy solutions to ensure dental health and access to care for children. These policies fall into four categories: cost-effective ways to help prevent problems from occurring in the first place; Medicaid improvements that enable and motivate more dentists to treat disadvantaged children; new workforce models that expand the number of qualified dental providers; and gathering data to gauge progress and improve performance.

Only six states merited "A” grades: Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Carolina. These states met at least six of the eight policy benchmarks and had policies in place that met or exceeded the national performance standards. These high grades do not mean that all people in the state have access to quality dental care services. Severe access problems still exist in states that received "A” grades, but these states have policies in place needed to improve dental care.

Nine states received a grade of "B”: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Washington. Twenty states received a grade of "C” because they met four or fewer of the eight policy benchmarks. Six states and the District of Columbia earned a "D” grade: Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada and Utah. Nine states earned an "F,” meeting only one or two policy benchmarks: Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, Hawaii, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming. No state met all eight targets. New Jersey ranked lowest in the nation, meeting only one benchmark.

"The challenge of ensuring disadvantaged children’s dental health and access to care is one that can be overcome,” said Ralph Fuccillo, president, the DentaQuest Foundation. "We hope states will use the information in this report to make improvements in dental care for children. There are a variety of solutions that can be achieved at relatively little cost; the return on investment for children and taxpayers is promising.”

"Unfortunately, while some states are improving access to oral health care, there are still millions of children and families – especially those who are poor and live in communities of color – who can’t gain access to the care that exists,” said Sterling K. Speirn, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "States need to explore creative workforce solutions, such as the dental therapist model, for addressing this glaring gap in our health care system, and improving access to quality oral health care for all children.”

There are many solutions that can be achieved at relatively little cost and the return on investment for children and taxpayers will be significant. Americans are expected to spend $106 billion on dental care in 2010. This includes many expensive restorative treatments – from fillings to root canals – that could have been mitigated or avoided altogether with earlier, easier and less expensive ways of ensuring adequate dental care when they were children.

Report Shows Need for Low-Cost Solutions
The Pew report highlights four proven solutions that can improve both the dental health of children and their access to care:

Sealants: Protective coatings applied to the teeth by a dentist or hygienist cost one third as much as filling a cavity and have been shown to prevent 60 percent of cavities. School-based programs are the most cost-effective strategy for providing sealants to disadvantaged children, yet this strategy is vastly underutilized. Community water fluoridation: Identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th Century, fluoridated water counteracts tooth decay and strengthens teeth. Fluoride occurs naturally in water, but the level varies within states and across the country. In addition to being the most far-reaching preventive measure states can enact, fluoridation also offers an unmatched return on investment, saving $38 in dental treatment costs for every dollar spent. About 30 percent of the population on community water systems does not yet receive fluoridated water. Medicaid improvements: Making minor changes to this federal program can enable and motivate more dentists to treat low-income children. Only 38 percent of Medicaid-eligible children received dental care in 2007, largely because too few dentists are willing to treat them. The number of children receiving dental services more than doubled over just four years in several states that have increased Medicaid reimbursement rates. More dental providers: New professionals, similar to nurse practitioners in the medical field, can expand the number of qualified dental providers who can fill the unmet needs of children. A growing number of states are exploring new models that increase the involvement of physicians, hygienists, and new types of dental professionals. View the full report and fact sheets with in-depth data for each state.

For the eighth straight year, Minnesota dentists are providing free dental care to less fortunate children Feb. 5 and 6.

Dr. Robert Templeton, president of the association, says volunteer dentists are trying to close the gap at a time when government programs for families have been cut.

The Give Kids a Smile program is open to patients under age 18. Appointments can be made by calling United Way at 211 or the statewide toll-free number, 1-800-543-7709. A list of participating clinics is available at http://www.mndental.org.