While we are not certain just how far $2 million will go toward improving dental care in Kentucky, but as former newspaper publisher Al Smith, retired host of “Comment on Kentucky” and former chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission, said: At least “it’s a start” and “a promise kept.”
The ARC and the Health Resources and Services Administration are funding the initiative aimed at improving the dental health of Kentucky’s children, especially those in distressed counties of Appalachia. Its goals are specific: To increase the number of dental visits for children up to 6 years old by 16 percent and to reduce the decay rate in children in the 40 distressed counties of Kentucky’s Appalachian region by 15 percent.
Toothless hillbillies have been the butt of jokes for generations, but our poor dental health is no laughing matter.
A 2001 University of Kentucky study found that 46 percent of Kentucky’s children between the ages of 2 and 4 already suffered some dental decay. In 2004, Kentucky led the nation in those 65-and-older who were missing teeth, and 27 percent of Kentucky residents of all ages had lost six or more teeth to decay or gum disease, compared to 18 percent nationally.
In once sense, our poor dental health is understandable. When money is scarce, dental care tends to take a back seat to other needs. After all, a toothache may be painful, but it is not life-threatening. Thus, more serious health problems get more attention.
While toothpaste, good tooth brushes and regular visits with the dentist are not particularly expensive, they are things that can can be skipped when on a tight budget.
There are about 2,300 dentists in Kentucky but, according to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, only about 450 of them are Medicaid providers who treat children. Of those, only about 50 are pediatric dentists. Only 28 of Kentucky’s 120 counties have practicing pediatric dentists.
Poor dental health also is a concern because it is so preventable. Regular brushing and visits to the dentist can dramatically reduce the number of cavities children get. In fact, one of the best things Kentucky can do to improve dental health of children from poor families is to assure that they can get a regular supply of good toothpaste. After all, because toothpaste cannot be purchased with food debit cards, it sometimes is left out of the shopping cart when buying groceries.
Just making sure poor kids can get toothpaste and toothbrushes and teaching them how to properly use them is a good first step to improving the dental health of our youngest residents. Another step is teaching adults that tooth decay can lead to other, more serious health problems and that poor teeth can negatively effect the earning potential of young Kentuckians.
Such things can be effective without being unduly costly.
Editorials
It's no joke — 10/17/09
Program targets poor dental health of young Kentuckians
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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