Group outlines goals to improve oral health
New Hampshire Dental Society have outlined five goals which they hope will improve oral health in the state.
Thirty-nine percent of people in New Hampshire don’t have dental insurance, while less than half of water supplies have been fluoridated and many children don’t have access to dental care.
The society (NHDS) released a report which firstly urged more dentists to perform screenings and said that communities should add fluoride to un-fluoridated water supplies.
It also recommended that better ties should be built between dentists, hospitals and obstetricians, and that parents should educated and encouraged to start screening their children at a younger age.
NHDS also want paediatricians and family doctors to start performing oral screenings, varnishing kids teeth with fluoride and making referrals to dentists.
The report also said that the public needed to be educated about the correlation between general health and good oral health and advocated the expansion of school dental programs.
It said that new oral health coaches should be created so that individuals or families who find it difficult to access dental care could be reached – particularly those that don’t speak English and those that live in rural areas.
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