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Sue Mackey Andrews of Dover-Foxcroft is a volunteer with Aiding Fingers with Heart and the Maine Highlands Doing work Communities Challenge.
Even though Mainers get delight in the many techniques in which we serve as a positive purpose design for the relaxation of the country, oral overall health is one region where by we have been failing our young children.
Maine ranks 3rd to final in the nation in the proportion of children insured by Medicaid who obtain any preventive dental treatment. Even amongst young children who have commercial dental added benefits, too a lot of go without treatment.
There are quite a few good reasons for this long-standing problem. Maine suffers from a lack of dentists, and in some places of the point out, it can acquire quite a few hrs to vacation to a dental office if moms and dads can pay for the provider, have the transportation essential, and really can get time off function to get their little one. This pay a visit to is normally “out of our county” and can eat a total working day — that means skipped faculty and missed get the job done.
Tooth suffering can an remarkable unpleasant knowledge for kids and can disrupt their education and the easy matters in lifetime — like eating. When small children have lousy dentition, cavities or prematurely misplaced teeth, their self-esteem struggles. This situation can sadly lengthen into adulthood and negatively have an affect on a person’s skill to get a task because of to lousy dentition.
Dental condition is mainly preventable when little ones have accessibility to early prevention and procedure. Nevertheless, in our Maine Highlands location, where by extra than half of our children under age 12 are enrolled in MaineCare — the state’s Medicaid method — we have only a person dentist who accepts MaineCare.
Dental ailment plagues so numerous individuals in Maine that it appears we have forgotten it is a illness we know how to protect against and address. Brushing, flossing and very good diet practices are undoubtedly an crucial aspect of oral well being treatment, but making confident youngsters can get preventive providers like fluoride varnish and sealants also has a main impact. Unfortunately, for too many people, securing time off from do the job, locating a dentist to see their youngsters, physically getting there and remaining capable to afford the expenses are all limitations that reduce little ones from getting this important health care.
A single vital alternative is the Maine Heart for Ailment Regulate and Prevention’s Faculty Oral Wellbeing Plan, which brings oral overall health screenings, fluoride varnish and sealants proper to learners wherever they currently are: in school. Numerous grownups these days keep in mind the glory times of this application when youngsters lined up for the pink plaque-disclosing tablets and fluoride “swish.” Pretty simple, appropriate? And effective, much too.
Unfortunately, cuts over the a long time have eradicated all of the point out oral well being personnel positions, and the school application presently serves only about a 3rd of elementary faculties in the point out.
This 12 months, our Legislature has the prospect to reverse this downward development. LD 1501, An Act to Safeguard Oral Overall health for Youngsters in Maine, would extend the University Oral Health Program so that all faculties can take part. The invoice would also restore one point out oral overall health coordinator position at the Maine CDC to be certain the program’s success and facts-pushed strategy, as perfectly as to deal with workforce shortages and supply general public wellbeing management on oral well being issues for all ages in Maine.
Exploring approaches to make preventive dental care far more available is great for the economic system as very well as excellent for our overall health. Each individual point out standard fund greenback spent on Medicaid dental products and services delivers in approximately 2 times as much in federal matching funds. The restoration of a point out oral wellbeing coordinator is critical to make Maine competitive in implementing for available federal oral overall health funding that we have been leaving on the desk.
When we sacrifice our children’s oral wellness to preserve a handful of pennies, we fork out a significantly even worse price tag and we pay it about and more than once more. There are lots of troubles dealing with the Legislature this session, but this is a winnable struggle, and the time to act is now. Oral overall health is health, and our kids require this to triumph in life.