Health News
- 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...
- Uk Students In National Program To Educate Kids About Oral Health
A University of Kentucky undergraduate dental group was recently spotlighted by the National Children's Oral Health Foundation for their passion to share oral-health education with elementary and middle schools in Kentucky, according to a UK...
- 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...
- Students With Tooth Problems Don't Do As Well In School
More evidence shows students who have dental problems struggle more in school. A new study of almost 1,500 disadvantaged students in Los Angeles public schools found those who had had recent tooth pain were four times more likely to have a low grade-point...
- 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...
Health News
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, Clay, Elliott, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Knott, Knox, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Owsley, Perry, Russell and Wolfe.
In the Smiling Schools program, children in first to fifth grades "will have their teeth painted with two fluoride treatments over a four- to six-month period," reports Mike Wynn of The Courier-Journal. "Fluoride prevents and reverses the early affects of tooth decay and slows the progress of existing problems."
(Photo by James Mann, The Winchester Sun: Emily Havens of Clark County gets the treatment)
(Photo by James Mann, The Winchester Sun: Emily Havens of Clark County gets the treatment)
The University of Kentucky Dental School will examine the children before and after the tooth varnish treatments to assess the effectiveness of the program. Results of a project that Beshear said inspired the program are promising. About 3,000 children in Clark County had their teeth painted with the varnish and decay rates in a group of sixth graders fell dramatically. By the third year of the treatment, decay rates had fallen from 50 percent to 14.5 percent, one of the lowest rates in the state, said dentist Rankin Skinner, who spearheaded the project.
In 2001, Kentucky children had tooth decay in their baby teeth almost twice as often as the national average, Beshear said Thursday. More than 46 percent of children ages 2 to 4 went untreated that year. "The impact of these dental problems is much more than just an uneven smile or a poor national image, Beshear said. "Dental problems affect overall health and development ? everything from nutritional choices to speech development to performance in school." (Read more)
Rachel Parsons of The Winchester Sun reports that the impetus for the project was a December 2007 New York Times story about Kentucky's poor dental health, particularly that of children. Prompted by his son who read the story, Will Hodgkin of the Clark County Community Foundation contacted Skinner, who had learned of the varnish while completing a study in Ecuador, where dentists had noted big decreases in decay rates after using the substance on teeth. The foundation funded treatment for all preschool and elementary students in 2008-09, and the program is now run by the Clark County Health Department. (Read more)
- 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...
- Uk Students In National Program To Educate Kids About Oral Health
A University of Kentucky undergraduate dental group was recently spotlighted by the National Children's Oral Health Foundation for their passion to share oral-health education with elementary and middle schools in Kentucky, according to a UK...
- 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...
- Students With Tooth Problems Don't Do As Well In School
More evidence shows students who have dental problems struggle more in school. A new study of almost 1,500 disadvantaged students in Los Angeles public schools found those who had had recent tooth pain were four times more likely to have a low grade-point...
- 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...