A person’s oral health is essential for one’s overall health and well-being. Many oral and craniofacial diseases and conditions can result from lack of oral care. These diseases and conditions include tooth decay, gum diseases, cleft lip and palate, oral and facial pain, mouth and throat cancers, and dry mouth (CITE). In addition, a person may find it difficult to maintain a healthy oral health status due to their social determinants. Healthy People 2020 states, “a person’s access to oral health care is associated with factors such as education level, income, race, and ethnicity” (CITE). For example, in 2014, 17.7% of adults of 25 years and older with less than a high school education visited the dentist during that past year in comparison to 57.9% of adults with at least some college education. Additionally, 57.2% of people aged 2 years and older with family incomes 400% or more of the poverty threshold visited the dentist within that past year, while those who had family incomes less than 100% was 28.7% (CITE). Moreover, …show more content…
In addition, Healthy People 2020 have many objectives for oral health such as, “Oral Health of Children and Adolescents, Oral Health of Adults, Oral Health Interventions, Monitoring, Surveillance Systems, and Public Health Infrastructures” (CITE). However, one of Healthy People 2020’s main objective for oral health is providing access to preventive services. Their high-priority health issue for this is to “increase the proportion of children, adolescents, and adults who used the oral health care system in the past year.” Their baseline reads, “44.5 percent of persons aged 2 years and over had a dental visit in the past year in 2007 (age adjusted to the year 2000 standard population).” Their target for 2020 to raise that percentage by 4.5 percent
The child is at stage three linguistic speech in oral development (Fellows & Oakley, 2014). They show evidence of this in both their receptive and expressive language meeting the criteria for this stage (Fellows & Oakley, 2014). They show evidence of their receptive language by their ability in being able to understand opposites (Fellows & Oakley, 2014). While they had some issues with the differences between soft and scratchy they were able to demonstrate the differences between big and little several times during the dialogue. They showed evidence of their expressive language by their use of telegraphic speech, expanding vocabulary and in the ability to take in turns of speaking and listening (Fellows & Oakley, 2014). Telegraphic
I am fortunate that my experiences have made me aware of these things so that when I do return to these communities as a dentist, I can not only better serve my patients as a provider, but I can also be a leading advocate for the change that is so desperately needed by the individuals in these communities. As I continue along my career path in dentistry, I intend to keep volunteering in dental clinics in underserved communities as well as participating in formal organizations such as Saving Smiles to more effectively address these issues as well as enhance my understanding of the dental field. Perhaps while I serve in these communities, I can inspire and support future health professionals that will continue to advance the incredible changes that our health fields are currently
Promoting oral health and disease prevention: Dentist should create an awareness to public in order to reduce oral problems. It is important for the public to know the importance of oral health to general health and well being.
Imagine having to spend half your fortune on correcting your teeth.”Tooth decay was a perennial national problem that meant a mouthful of silver for patients, and for dentists a pocketful of gold.” (Wallis, 17) If patients don’t take care of their teeth, many issues can start to appear later in their life. Some patients are not knowledgeable of the correct procedures toward keeping a healthy smile. In order to keep a healthy smile patients must be better informed about the knowledge to achieve that success and also maintain.
Children with disabilities or other health impairments require assistance of adults to live to their fullest potential. Although childhood caries is not a typical disease when considering disabling chronic illnesses, it is becoming a global health crisis that affects children in many ways. According to the United States Surgeon General’s report from the US Department of Health and Human Services (2000), dental caries is stated to be the “most common chronic childhood disease of children aged 5 to 17 years and is five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.” Childhood caries can severely affect a child’s quality of life in the areas of overall development, family relationships, community relationships, and educational challenges; the collaboration of parents and teachers is essential in treating and preventing childhood caries, not only in the United States, but also around the world.
Sundby, A., & Petersen, P. E. (2003). Oral health status in relation to ethnicity of children in the Municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark. International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, 13(3), 150-157.
Each country in today’s world has their own growth and their own dental care system. As you can see in appendix 5 and 6 you will see “Scorecard assessment of state of evidence for action, leadership, resources and health systems in important areas of oral health”(Beaglehole Pg 90). The global scale is organized in 3 categories high income, middle income and low income countries. High income countries world population is on...
Over time as individuals age and are faced with access to care issues they may begin to neglect their oral health. As time passes between dental hygiene cleanings or dentist visits the presence of oral disease may begin to increase.
In the Dental Hygiene field, many challenges come about every day and during different situations. Every day there are new challenges and unusual situations that occur in the dental field, but one challenge that continues to come about and has been a big dispute over the years is the ability to provide beneficial information about oral health care for the underprivileged. For the individuals that are not fortunate enough to pay to have services done in the dental office, lack the knowledge of how important good oral health care is. They do not receive the one on one conversations explaining the significance of taking care of your teeth and gums that the patients who can afford to make appointments and receive essential services do. That
(1) LOW INCOME AND LACK OF INSURANCE: A number of studies have linked poor oral health with low socioeconomic status. Affordability is identified as major challenge in accessing dental care. “For instance, 17.3 per cent of the whole population (i.e., approximately
Healthy People 2020 is a program for the promotion of health and the prevention of diseases, launched by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2010. According to healthypeople.gov, this program has four overarching goals which are first to achieve healthy, longer lives free of preventable diseases, injuries, and premature deaths; to achieve health fairness, eliminate differences, and improve all groups’ health; also to produce social and physical environments that encourage good health; and last but not least to promote life’s quality, healthy development, and healthy behaviors through all life stages. This program has a vision of a community where people live long, healthy lives. Healthy People 2020 offers a comprehensive set of 10 years of nationwide goals and objectives that is meant to improve the health of the American population. Healthy People 2020 covers 42 topic areas with approximately 600 objectives, which include 1,200 measures. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, has been designated to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them, this objectives are called Leading Health Indicators. The program goes above and beyond these health indicators in order to provide the best care for the people of this country. These indictors cover from the access of health service, nutrition, physical activity, and obesity to substance abuse, environmental quality, injury and violence.
Cappelli, D. P., & Mobley, C. C. (2008). Prevention in clinical oral health care. St. Louis, Mo: Mosby Elsevier.
Background: According to Canadian Health Measures Survey on latest oral health, approximately 62% of Canadian had private dental insurance. About 50% of the respondents from the lower income class do not have any dental insurance while 78% of the respondents with higher income section had private dental insurance coverage. Half of low-income individuals without dental insurance will pay for dental care expenses by themselves for them and their families. Additionally, 53% of respondents between the age of 60 and 79 were also not covered by any dental insurance. This indicates, that most Canadians will get private dental insurance when they are capable to afford it (i.e. high income). Whereas, half of low income and more than half seniors lack any dental insurance to receive dental care (1).
This directed me towards taking one of the most important decisions of my life of coming to the United States to pursue Masters of Public Health (MPH) and learn from the pioneers who have successfully integrated it in the society with positive results. I wanted to apply my knowledge beyond the borders of dental hygiene education and learn sophisticated methods to address the co-morbidities and healthcare access inequalities, as I have seen in a lot of my patients. My interest in mathematics compelled me to choose Epidemiology major and learn statistical software to study disease burden, distribution and trends. I volunteered in George Washington University (GWU) ISCOPES- Adult health literacy team, where we attended Emory transitional house and educated people about various health topics including oral health. During my MPH, I did my practicum at Washington DC, Department of Health on “Analysis of utilization of dental home linkage and preventive dental services among DC Medicaid children less than 3years of age for calendar year 2014” using Statistical Analysis System software (SAS). This project gave me an insight about the Current Dental Terminology codes and the trends in service utilization in a subset of the U.S. population. I was graciously honored with Practicum Research Fellowship Award by my school for my
Dental hygiene is a dynamic and challenging career that offers team work, personal growth, and extraordinary benefits, and it is the perfect career for me. As a health care professional, the dental hygienist is an important member of the dental team providing patient care. Good qualities for a dental hygienist are compassion and enjoying talking to people which are two qualities that fit my personality. I love the thought of knowing I made a positive impact in a person's health. Becoming a dental hygienist professionally requires you to obtain an associate degree in dental hygiene. They affect the average American by educating them about dental care. A dentist helps people with their dental health, which can greatly impact a person’s day-to-day life.