Health News
In an op-ed piece, veteran Kentucky journalist Al Smith praised the recent announcement that 25,000 Eastern Kentucky children in 16 counties will receive preventive dental care this school year.
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- Effort For Kids' Dental Health In Clark, Started By Volunteers And Continued By Health Department With Tax, Earns National Award
"A community effort to fight tooth decay in children in Clark County has been named a model for the nation," veteran journalist Al Smith reports in an op-ed for the Lexington Herald-Leader. The Clark County Dental Health Initiative received the award...
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- Board Of Dentistry's Relaxation Of Limits On Hygienists Is The Latest Sign Of Hope In Kentucky's All-too-grim Story Of Oral Health
By Al Smith Kentucky Health News With nearly a fourth of Kentucky?s 1 million children living in poverty and suffering some of the worst oral health in America, the state Board of Dentistry voted Saturday to develop regulations to permit hygienists to...
Health News
Oral health grant for 25,000 Appalachian children should be beginning of statewide effort, Al Smith says
In an op-ed piece, veteran Kentucky journalist Al Smith praised the recent announcement that 25,000 Eastern Kentucky children in 16 counties will receive preventive dental care this school year. The project, funded by a $1 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission and $250,000 in state funds, will involve painting the teeth of those children with a special varnish that prevents tooth decay. As co-founder of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and former federal cochair of the ARC, Smith has pushed long and hard for the improvement of oral health in Kentucky.
He spoke of the grant announcement in conjunction with discussions of the continued $900 million expansion of the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center. "Obviously, the bricks and mortar go to serve extremely important life saving and health purposes, but the ARC pilot treatments of children's teeth should persuade all Kentuckians that this care is essential for every county," he wrote.
The project is called Healthy Smiles and was announced by Gov. Steve Beshear last week. "Over the course of 2011-2012 school year, two protective fluoride tooth varnish treatments and educational materials for healthy dental practices will be offered to children in the first through fifth grades at selected schools," Smith summarized.
Counties that will benefit from the project are Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Elliott, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Knott, Knox, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Owsley, Perry, Russell and Wolfe.
The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues told Beshear about Kentucky's serious oral health deficits when he was running for governor four years ago, Smith said in his op-ed piece. That assessment showed "that half of Kentucky's children had decay in their baby teeth; and nearly half of children ages, 2, 3, and 4 had untreated dental problems," Smith wrote.
Cavities and loss of teeth create problems in later life, Smith asserted. He referred to statements made by Dr. Steve Davis, interim commissioner of public health, who said Kentuckians looking to join the military may be turned away if they have a mouthful of oral health problems: "The Navy, particularly, takes seriously the warning that a sailor stricken by a toothache in the depths of the sea could mishandle a task on a sub and send the craft plunging to the bottom." For a Word version of Smith's op-ed, click here.
- Smiling Schools Tooth-varnish Program Expands To 10 More Counties; Now In 40
Kentucky's Smiling Schools program is expanding to 10 more counties and will now provide its free preventive tooth varnishing treatments to children in 40 elementary schools, most in Appalachia, according to a state press release. Gov. Steve Beshear...
- State, Dental Schools Start Pilot Program To Forgive Loans Of Dental Graduates Who Set Up Practice In Appalachian Kentucky
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News ANNVILLE, Ky. ? Two to five new graduates of Kentucky's dental schools will each have up to $150,000 of their tuition debt forgiven if they practice dentistry in Appalachian Kentucky, under a pilot program state and...
- Effort For Kids' Dental Health In Clark, Started By Volunteers And Continued By Health Department With Tax, Earns National Award
"A community effort to fight tooth decay in children in Clark County has been named a model for the nation," veteran journalist Al Smith reports in an op-ed for the Lexington Herald-Leader. The Clark County Dental Health Initiative received the award...
- Sick Of All The Bad Facts About Kentucky's Health? Here's Encouraging News About Oral Health And Drug Treatment
Despite the plethora of bad news about Kentucky's poor health status, there are many positive initiatives for Kentucky's oral health and substance abuse treatment, which were stories buried under health news headlines about Medicaid expansion...
- Board Of Dentistry's Relaxation Of Limits On Hygienists Is The Latest Sign Of Hope In Kentucky's All-too-grim Story Of Oral Health
By Al Smith Kentucky Health News With nearly a fourth of Kentucky?s 1 million children living in poverty and suffering some of the worst oral health in America, the state Board of Dentistry voted Saturday to develop regulations to permit hygienists to...