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Save the Date: OHK Annual Conference

NASHP Report Authors in KS from Washington DC for Advocacy Day

Kansans Honored with Excellence in Oral Health Awards

OHK Welcomes New Board Members

OHK Welcomes a New Staff Member

Oral Health Resources

Sounding Off: Don't Use Tobacco Industry-Produced Smoking Cessation Materials

Oral Health Kansas:
Making oral health a priority in Kansas... because your mouth matters!

Oral Health Kansas

800 SW Jackson St.
Suite 1120
Topeka, KS 66612

Phone:
(785) 235-6039

Fax:
(785) 233-5564

E-mail:
ohks@oralhealthkansas.org

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Save the Date

Please mark your calendars! This year’s annual Oral Health Conference will be held on November 6-7, 2008.

NASHP Report Authors in Kansas from Washington D.C. for Advocacy Day

In 2007, Oral Health Kansas and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund commissioned the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) to write a report examining options for adding dental benefits into health reform. The report was in response to the input sought by the Kansas Health Policy Authority (KHPA) as they were working to put together a health reform plan. The report, entitled “Kansas Health Reform: Options for Adding Dental Benefits” is now available on our website at www.oralhealthkansas.org .

The authors of the report, Shelly Geshan and Andrew Snyder, were in Kansas at the end of January to be our featured guests for Oral Health Kansas Advocacy Day. Ultimately, Shelly and Andy appeared in front of four legislative committees, which represented almost half of all Kansas legislators. Their message highlighted three approaches that Kansas might choose when considering adding dental benefits to overall health reform efforts:

• Use Medicaid as a vehicle for providing dental benefits

• Offer a private dental insurance product

• Combine Medicaid and private insurance in a “connector”

They also stressed other public health measures that Kansas might consider, including: sealant programs, community water fluoridation, strengthening the safety net and expanding the dental workforce.

Kansans Honored with Excellence in Oral Health Awards

Congratulations to the following winners of the 2007 Excellence in Oral Health awards presented by Oral Health Kansas at its annual conference.

 Outstanding Policy Maker: Senator James Barnett, Emporia

During the 2007 legislative session, Senator Barnett championed a bill that increased the number of Kansans eligible for community-based dental hygiene services delivered by registered dental hygienists utilizing an Extended Care Permit (ECP). The services are designed to prevent oral diseases, or identify them early enough to ward off serious infections and pain. As a result of changes to the ECP law, hygienists may now service a wide range of Kansans in community settings, such as early childhood centers, schools, therapeutic centers for children with special needs or children in state custody, senior centers, senior housing, long-term care facilities and centers for adults with developmental disabilities. Hygienists with an ECP may also provide services to children, pregnant women, adults and seniors who are patients at local health departments or safety net clinics.

Outstanding Clinician: Maggie Smet, RDH, Newton

Maggie Smet provides preventive dental care and education to elders though the use of an Extended Care Permit (ECP). Her ECP allows her to move beyond the traditional dental office to provide dental services in the community. Smet should be considered a trailblazer in Kansas. She laid the foundation for elders in long-term care facilities by expanding her services to eight facilities in four counties. In addition to her clinical work, she trains others on dental care for long-term care residents and serves as a mentor to other hygienists wanting to utilize an ECP.

Outstanding Community Member: Nick Rogers, DDS, Arkansas City

Several years ago, Dr. Rogers began to notice that the number of three year olds entering his practice with extreme decay was increasing drastically, and he wanted to do something to stop the disturbing trend. He called a group of community members together to discuss the problem, and with his continued leadership, the result was a parent education campaign called Tiny Teeth. According to the Legacy Foundation, who funds the program along with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund of Hutchinson, the program has saved Cowley County about $85,000 per year in treatment costs and has even more importantly, saved a lot of children from needless pain and suffering. Tiny Teeth materials are designed to be accurate and easy to use.  Materials provide information for parents of newborns about oral hygiene and nutrition and are designed to integrate into existing programs. Involving multiple agencies means parents hear a consistent message about oral care for their families from every agency with whom they interact.

Outstanding Organization: Kansas Action for Children, Topeka

In 2004, Kansas Action for Children implemented a statewide public awareness campaign for children's oral health called Your Mouth Matters. The campaign included television commercials; a fun, colorful poster aimed at pediatricians for family practice physicians that stressed the general guidelines for preventive dental care; postcards and a "Let's Talk Pop" toolkit for advocates trying to change school policies related to sugary beverages and snacks. Recently, KAC spearheaded a coalition of Kansas advocates encouraging Congress to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which included several oral health provisions.

Oral Health Kansas Welcomes New Board Members

At its December annual meeting, the OHK Board officially welcomed three new members: Cathy Harding, Dr. Mark Herzog and Douglas Stuckey.

Cathy Harding

Cathy Harding is currently the Executive Director of the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved (KAMU), the state primary care association. She brings to the Board extensive experience in health center management and administration as well as skilled learned through various other positions she has held, including health educator, grant writer, and director of Administrative Services and Program Development at Flint Hills Community Health Center. Harding has a master’s degree in communications and bachelor’s in business administration, both from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Mark Herzog, DDS

Dr. Herzog brings to the Board his experiences of 22 years in the private practice of dentistry. As a rural Medicaid provider for 22 years, he understands all too well the need for access to dental care. His interest is in emphasizing access to dental care from cradle to grave. Dr. Herzog was a member of the inaugural Dental Champions leadership class in 2005 and has remained active in the coalition since then.

Douglas Stuckey

Douglas Stuckey currently serve s as the Chief Financial Officer for the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas and brings to the Board over 25 years experience as an MBA/CPA. In addition to serving on the OHK Board, he is also very involved in his local community. His involvement includes leadership in organizations such as Rotary, Pittsburg State University Alumni Association, and Little Balkans Festival Association , a Pittsburg community festival . In his current position, he has witnessed first-hand the huge demand for quality dental care for the uninsured and underserved , and he is excited to be bringing his expertise to OHK to impact the health and well-being of people on a broader scale.

Oral Health Kansas Welcomes a New Staff Member

We are pleased to announce that Penny Staples has recently joined the OHK staff as our administrative assistant. When you call or stop by the office, she is likely to be your first point of contact.

Penny’s background is very diverse with experience in everything from patient care to banking. Her passion is providing great service and being creative.

She was born and raised in Washington State and just recently relocated to Kansas with her husband and 2 children. They enjoy spending their time outdoors and going to sporting events together.

Penny can be contacted at pstaples@oralhealthkansas.org .

Oral Health Resources

The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) is pleased to announce the availability of A Way with Words: Guidelines for Writing Oral Health Materials for Audiences with Limited Literacy. This resource was developed to assist professionals working to improve the oral health of infants, children, adolescents, and their families.

"A Way with Words" provides tips to help those who produce educational materials make them easy for everyone to understand, and thus more useful. The tip sheet offers suggestions for how to choose words; set an appropriate tone; and craft sentences, paragraphs, lists, and headings that communicate most effectively with people with limited literacy.

Ideas for how to design documents and how to present unfamiliar terminology are also presented. A list of resources for more information is included.

Single or multiple print copies of this resource are available at no charge from the HRSA Information Center, P.O. Box 2910, Merrifield, VA 22116, phone: (888) ASK-HRSA (275-4772), fax: (703) 821-2098, e-mail: ask@hrsa.gov . Click here for an electronic copy: http://www.mchoralhealth.org/PDFs/AWayWithWords.pdf

Sounding Off!

Don't Use Tobacco Industry-Produced Smoking Cessation Materials by Scott L. Tomar, DMD, DrPH

The major tobacco companies in the United States have been targeting dental and medical offices for dissemination of their youth smoking prevention materials. Unfortunately, many health care providers may be unaware that displaying and distributing such materials may actually undermine public health efforts to prevent tobacco use.

I was dismayed to find an advertising insert in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association for Philip Morris USA's Youth Smoking Prevention Program. Philip Morris USA manufactures Marlboro cigarettes, the long-time leading brand among young people who smoke. ¹

That sales record was no accident: previously secret tobacco industry documents reveal decades of market research conducted by Philip Morris specifically to achieve that goal, ² so many people in the tobacco control and public health community are skeptical that the company is serious about reducing smoking by young people. Philip Morris' advertising campaign focuses on peer influence, parental factors, and commercial access being the primary influences on youth smoking initiation, rather than tobacco industry marketing, inaccurate risk appraisal, price, and other factors known to influence youth smoking. ³ The available evidence suggests that not only is this tobacco industry campaign not effective in reducing youth smoking, it is associated with lowering youths' perceived harm of smoking. ⁴ Tobacco industry-sponsored campaigns such as Philip Morris' may have a harmful effect by contributing "clutter" to public health-sponsored advertising that have been shown to be effective and by reinforcing smoking as a measure of teens' independence from their parents. ⁴ In reality, the primary reason for the Philip Morris Youth Smoking Prevention Program and similar tobacco industry-produced campaigns is to allow the tobacco companies to claim in litigation that they are "serious" about tackling youth smoking and to improve their public image, while actually conducting an intentionally ineffective campaign.

Through the American Dental Association (ADA) Council on Access, Prevention, and Institutional Relations, the AAPHD Executive Council has introduced a resolution urging dentists and health organizations to provide tobacco information or materials to patients and consumers only from credible and trustworthy sources and not from tobacco companies or groups aligned with them. The resolution would also establish an ADA policy prohibiting advertisements from tobacco companies, or groups aligned with them, in any of its publications or meetings. The ADA House of Delegates will consider this resolution at its annual meeting in the fall. The American Medical Association has already adopted a similar resolution.

I urge AAPHD members not to display or distribute tobacco industry-produced materials in their offices or clinics. There are many excellent tobacco prevention and cessation materials produced by reputable health agencies and organizations that would be far more appropriate.

References

1.  Kaufman NJ, Castrucci BC, Mowery P, Gerlach KK, Emont S, Orleans CT. Changes in adolescent cigarette-brand preference, 1989 to 1996. Am J Health Behav 2004;28:54-62.

2.  Hafez N, Ling PM. How Philip Morris built Marlboro into a global brand for young adults: Implications for international tobacco control. Tob Control 2005;14:262-71.

3.  Wakefield M, McLeod K, Perry CL. "Stay away from them until you're old enough to make a decision": Tobacco company testimony about youth smoking initiation. Tob Control 2006;15(Suppl 4):iv44-iv53.

4.  Wakefield M, Terry-McElrath Y, Emery S, Saffer H, Chaloupka FJ, Szczypka G, Flay B, O'Malley PM, Johnston LD. Effect of televised, tobacco company-funded smoking prevention advertising on youth smoking-related beliefs, intentions, and behavior. Am J Public Health 2006;96:2154-60.

Scott Tomar is Professor and Chair of the Department of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science at the University of Florida College of Dentistry and Vice President of AAPHD.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Tomar originally published this article in the American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD) electronic newsletter, Communiqué, in January 2008. It is reprinted with permission.

If you would like to submit an opinion article for a future Sounding Off!, please do so by sending an email to Penny Staples at pstaples@oralhealthkansas.org .