- RPHARM Program Fulfills Need for Rural Pharmacists
- Farmers Don't Do Mental Health
- A Pilot Program in Rural Vermont Hopes to Build a Blueprint for Substance Abuse Recovery
- Rural Telehealth Extension Reintroduced in Congress
- Students From Across the State Emphasized the Need for Mental Health Resources in Rural Alaska During a Conference
- The South Was the Center of Rural Population Growth Last Year
- How HHS SUD Confidentiality Regulations Will Impact Rural Providers
- VA Announces Expansion of "Close to Me" Cancer Program as Part of the Cancer Moonshot, Bringing Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Closer to Thousands of Veterans
- Navajo Psychiatrist Bridges Gaps Between Native American Culture and Behavioral Health Care
- Biden-Harris Administration Releases National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and First-Ever Federal Action Plan
- Biden-Harris Administration Takes Historic Action to Increase Access to Quality Care, and Support to Families and Care Workers
- Rural Communities Face Primary Care Physician Shortage
- Rural Jails Turn to Community Health Workers To Help the Newly Released Succeed
- Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don't Meet Them.
- Miles for Milk: How Student-Run Grocery Store Reshaped Rural Community's Food Access
New Data: Oral Health Care in Children with Special Needs
Contemporary Pediatrics reported that data from the 2016-18 National Survey of Children’s Health showed 84% of children with special health care needs had received a preventive dental visit in the past year, compared with 78% of those who did not have special health care needs. While the study found that children with special health care needs did receive preventive care more often than children with special needs, also found children with special health care needs had higher rates of oral health problems.
Oral Health Care Report Published for People with Special Health Care Needs
The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) Best Practices Committee has shared an updated best practice approach report, “Oral Health Care of People with Special Health Care Needs.”
Even Before Coronavirus, Almost Half of Adults in Rural Areas Went Without Dental Care
Millions of rural residents have not seen a dentist in over a year, a recent CDC report reveals.
In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic forced dentists to shut down, 42 percent of adults in rural areas did not receive dental care, according to the survey. In urban areas, roughly a third of adults did not see a dentist that year.
In both groups, people of color and low-income residents were less likely to have seen a dentist in 2019. These disparities were wider in rural areas, where issues such as transportation barriers, dentist and dental hygienist shortages and lack of health insurance are more common. The coronavirus pandemic has likely exacerbated the need, especially for low-income patients, the report says.
Oral Health Care of People with Special Health Care Needs
The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) Best Practices Committee shared an updated Best Practice Approach Report, “Oral Health Care of People with Special Health Care Needs.” This report is the result of efforts by the ASTDD Best Practices Committee to identify and provide information on developing successful practices that address people with special health care needs.
New Report: Oral Health in Patients Experiencing Homelessness
The National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC) developed a publication to bring awareness to the intersection of oral health and behavioral health concerns or cognitive impairment in people experiencing homelessness (PEH). The publication shares the impacts of behavioral health illness on oral health and how behavioral health and dental providers can work together to address this intersection in their practices.
2021 Dental HPV Toolkit Now Available
The Massachusetts Oral HPV Task Force developed the first dental toolkit in 2016 to improve HPV knowledge at the dentist. Since then, it has been used in dental outreach across Massachusetts and has been successfully adapted in seven states. The toolkit has now been redesigned to reflect feedback from users and updated to provide the most up-to-date recommendations. It also includes internal training materials on how to recommend the HPV vaccine, as well as in-office communication materials.
Tobacco Cessation Training for Dental Staff
Nicotine Free NWPA has partnered with the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health (PCOH) to develop Integrating Nicotine Dependence Treatment with Oral Health: For Dental Professionals (INDTOH), a 1.2-hour tobacco and nicotine education training that provides a dental-specific follow-up course to the state’s own Every Smoker, Every Time (ESET) cessation training. INDTOH translates information presented in ESET into the oral health setting with focus on providing support and additional training in referring dental patients to cessation treatment programming, offering tools to empower oral health professionals to conduct effective cessation counseling, and informing dental clinicians how to bill for these services. Attendees will be presented data supporting the logic behind offering cessation services as a natural extension of oral and overall health for patients who use tobacco and nicotine products, as well as encouragement to consider systems change towards that end. All interested dental providers should take the ESET training first, which provides entry-level tobacco use-related education for health care professionals. It includes information on effective brief intervention, nicotine replacement therapy, and referral options.
The ESET training takes approximately 45 minutes. This training should be completed via self-study prior to moving on to the second INDTOH webinar. Dental licensees who complete both trainings can earn 2.0 free CEUs.
Dental Access Study in Health Centers
A newly released study examines the role of dentist supply, need for care, and long-term continuity in HRSA-funded health centers in the United States. What it found was that even a small increase in dental workforce resulted in greater access to dental care among health center patients. Increases of 0.5 or 1.0 full-time employees could lead to a 5–10 percent increase in possible dental visits. Expansion of the dental workforce and infrastructure is important to increasing access to and use of oral health care. You can also read other articles about quality care delivered by health centers by clicking here.
Foster Children Face Barriers to Good Oral Health
According to a study that was recently published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, youths with a history of foster care are more at risk of having poor oral health and are less likely to see a dentist for a specific dental problem or for routine care than those who have not been in foster care.
Newly Updated: Dental Workforce Manual
This updated chapter of the NNOHA Operations Manual provides helpful tools and resources for tackling issues related to workforce in health center dental programs, including recruitment and retention strategies, academic partnerships, and staffing ratios.