Health News
- State Gives 5 Health Departments Money For Mobile Dental-hygiene Teams That Will Examine Children At Schools; 5 More Next Year
Using new money in the state budget, the state Department for Public Health has given five local health departments grants to launch mobile dental hygiene programs. The one-year awards of $160,000 will pay for a full-time dental hygienist and assistant;...
- 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...
- 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...
- Promising Tooth Varnish That Prevents Tooth Decay Will Be Applied To 25,000 Students In 16 Kentucky Appalachian Counties
Using an innovative fluoride technique, about 25,000 children in 16 Appalachian Kentucky counties will receive preventive dental care at school, under a $1.25 million pilot project announced by Gov. Steve Beshear yesterday. The counties are Bell, Breathitt,...
- Veteran Journalist Sees Hope In Residential Drug Recovery Program
"Kentucky's struggle to help its citizens who suffer from dependency on drugs and alcohol recently reached an impressive goal when leaders of that struggle who are prominent in different political parties celebrated the official opening of a $5 million...
Health News
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 and low health rankings.
The Kentucky Board of Dentistry recently established the position of public heath dental hygienist, permitting hygienists to go into Kentucky schools to assess teeth on the front lines, which will provide basic preventive dental care to underserved kids with tooth problems through local health departments, Al Smith, left, reports in an opinion piece for the Lexington-Herald Leader.
"These hygienists will be able to do school fluoride varnish programs, place sealants, refer kids in pain, and promote dental health programs (like brushing and better nutrition) in the schools without being supervised by a dentist," Dr. Rankin Skinner, director of the Clark County Dental Health Initiative, told Smith. "I think this is a major step in developing dental health program like ours across the state and moving our kids towards better health in general."
The initiative, comprising 17 dentists and 127 volunteers, was selected as a national model by a national association of all the health departments. "It isn't often that a private volunteer program in Kentucky sets a national standard," Skinner told Smith.
Meanwhile, in Florence, Kentucky's first lady, Jane Beshear, a Democrat, joined her Republican co-chair of Recovery Kentucky, Lexington homebuilder Don Ball, to celebrate the Brighton Recovery Center's fifth birthday and nearly 800 graduates.
Brighton is one of the 10 new homes for Recovery Kentucky, a program that is also becoming a national model, Smith writes. Since its inception during the Fletcher administration, the program has provided supportive housing and addiction recovery programs to over 10,000 men and women, writes Smith.
Beshear said the next steps are for her and Ball to create more drug-free housing and jobs for graduates of the program, Smith reports. This goal creates hope for other successful initiatives and shines a ray of light at the end of a dark and dreary tunnel.
"These hygienists will be able to do school fluoride varnish programs, place sealants, refer kids in pain, and promote dental health programs (like brushing and better nutrition) in the schools without being supervised by a dentist," Dr. Rankin Skinner, director of the Clark County Dental Health Initiative, told Smith. "I think this is a major step in developing dental health program like ours across the state and moving our kids towards better health in general."
The initiative, comprising 17 dentists and 127 volunteers, was selected as a national model by a national association of all the health departments. "It isn't often that a private volunteer program in Kentucky sets a national standard," Skinner told Smith.
Meanwhile, in Florence, Kentucky's first lady, Jane Beshear, a Democrat, joined her Republican co-chair of Recovery Kentucky, Lexington homebuilder Don Ball, to celebrate the Brighton Recovery Center's fifth birthday and nearly 800 graduates.
Brighton is one of the 10 new homes for Recovery Kentucky, a program that is also becoming a national model, Smith writes. Since its inception during the Fletcher administration, the program has provided supportive housing and addiction recovery programs to over 10,000 men and women, writes Smith.
Beshear said the next steps are for her and Ball to create more drug-free housing and jobs for graduates of the program, Smith reports. This goal creates hope for other successful initiatives and shines a ray of light at the end of a dark and dreary tunnel.
- State Gives 5 Health Departments Money For Mobile Dental-hygiene Teams That Will Examine Children At Schools; 5 More Next Year
Using new money in the state budget, the state Department for Public Health has given five local health departments grants to launch mobile dental hygiene programs. The one-year awards of $160,000 will pay for a full-time dental hygienist and assistant;...
- 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...
- 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...
- Promising Tooth Varnish That Prevents Tooth Decay Will Be Applied To 25,000 Students In 16 Kentucky Appalachian Counties
Using an innovative fluoride technique, about 25,000 children in 16 Appalachian Kentucky counties will receive preventive dental care at school, under a $1.25 million pilot project announced by Gov. Steve Beshear yesterday. The counties are Bell, Breathitt,...
- Veteran Journalist Sees Hope In Residential Drug Recovery Program
"Kentucky's struggle to help its citizens who suffer from dependency on drugs and alcohol recently reached an impressive goal when leaders of that struggle who are prominent in different political parties celebrated the official opening of a $5 million...