Helping a Child's Smile

By David G. Jones

Preventing dental disease in children is a nationwide year-round challenge for parents and dentists alike. But during February every year, National Children's Dental Health Month focuses on that challenge by promoting awareness of the perils of oral disease in youngsters.

A multi-headed effort is the substance underlying the theory of positively affecting the oral health of the country's children. The ADA, CDA, component societies and individual providers of dental care continue to share the challenge of creating ways to better provide dental care, access and education to young people and those who care for them.

CDA receives and distributes 15,000 special promotional posters provided by ADA to help promote National Children's Dental Health Month. The posters and corresponding promotional planning kits used by dental society volunteers use the "Dudley's Clubhouse" theme and special cartoon characters to help secure attention and interest. The promotional planning kits help promote activities and events to heighten public awareness about dental health issues, such as baby bottle tooth decay, fluoridation, sealants, access to dental care, use of mouth protectors, and other aspects of a sound dental health program.

As ongoing promotion and publicity improve public awareness, CDA's legislative agenda and the day-to-day voluntary activities of thousands of California dentists are making a difference in the quality of children's dental health. As a point of reference, a recent survey shows California's 6- to 8-year-olds to have more than twice the national average of tooth decay, while 30 percent of California kindergartners have never had a dental visit, and only 10 percent have had sealants applied.

To help improve the oral health of those children, CDA is working to expand the SB 111 program, the original goal of which was to reduce the incidence of dental disease among elementary school children through comprehensive, school-based prevention programs. Currently the program, which was signed into law in 1979, operates in 29 school-based programs in 28 of the state's 58 counties, annually serving approximately 320,000 preschool and elementary school children. CDA will be working to increase the state allocation for the program to cover more children in areas of the state not currently served. In addition, CDA has been involved in the development and implementation of another program to get dental care to more children.

"The Healthy Families Program authorizes $468 million in state funding to provide comprehensive health coverage for children whose families earn from 100 to 200 percent of the poverty level," says CDA policy analyst Bill Lewis.

A portion of the funding is for a comprehensive package of dental benefits for about 560,000 children who have no dental coverage because their families do not qualify for Denti-Cal and cannot obtain insurance by themselves or through their employer.

"California's citizens will be seeing even more attention to children's dental needs," says Ray Stewart, DMD, president of the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry, referring to CDA-sponsored legislation which would require health insurance companies to include hospital-based anesthesia benefits for children undergoing dental procedures requiring sedation.

Of course, the efforts of thousands of California dentists to provide pro bono or reduced fee services to the underserved populations makes a difference in many young lives. One example: 1,000 children are treated each year in Monterey County's Head Start program, and more than 12,000 children of indigent farm workers annually receive care at the Children's Miracle Network Dental Center in Salinas.

Another program is the award-winning San Mateo County Dental Society Brushmobile. Each year, the mobile and ongoing community preventive dentistry project, housed in a converted passenger bus, helps 20,000 kindergarten through fifth-grade students benefit from instruction provided by dental educators to reinforce home oral care techniques.

But even with the efforts of those and other dentists who voluntarily help battle children's dental disease, Stewart thinks much more needs to be done.

"I feel very strongly that we need more people taking care of these kids," he says. "The new Healthy Family legislation starting next summer will help a lot, but if we don't get more dentists into this network, there's just no way we can provide these services. CDA and the local dental societies really need to make an all-out effort to see these kids."

Stewart also said that an additional benefit of more volunteer dentistry is "a really good image enhancement, so that the pubic knows that dentistry has a lot of people doing something about the access problem."

Julie Jarrett, CDA's coordinator for the Council on Community Health, simply says, "Lots of dentists are already involved. If you're not, contact your local dental society to get involved."

Endowed Professorship Established at UOP

Lee Atwood of San Rafael has given the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry peace of mind by giving them a piece of land. The funds netted from the sale of property in Colma, Calif., will be used to establish an endowed professorship named in honor of her husband, Dr. T. Galt Atwood, a 1928 graduate of the San Francisco College of Physicians and Surgeons, forerunner of the UOP School of Dentistry.

"Galt had a love and loyalty for the College of Physicians and Surgeons," Atwood says. "I thought it was only befitting that the endowed professorship would help the school achieve its goals like Galt would do if he were alive today."

Atwood served on the board of trustees for the college in the 1960s before its amalgamation with the University of the Pacific.

The money from the property has been deposited into an interest-bearing account. Dividends from the account will be reinvested until it reaches the $500,000 goal necessary to establish the endowed professorship.

Facing Adversity

Adverse reactions to dr