Health
Dental Health
All children need good oral health to grow and thrive, yet many children in Kentucky fail to receive the dental care they need. In fact, children in poverty and children of color are routinely and systematically underserved by health providers.
The recently released Pew Center report entitled The Cost of Delay gave Kentucky a grade of C for children’s oral health when measured against national benchmarks. According to the report, Kentucky met just half of the eight policy benchmarks aimed at addressing children’s dental health needs.
Kentucky Youth Advocates plans to bring more attention to this issue by creating a statewide dental health coalition that will create systems-level policy change and promote evidence-based practices to improve the oral health of Kentuckians. KYA will bring together relevant stakeholders to build upon previous dental health efforts and to further improve dental health care for all Kentuckians.
Kentucky Dental Resources
- Kentucky Children’s Oral Health Profiles (2001) – State and regional comparisons on key oral health measures in Kentucky produced by the Kentucky Department for Public Health, Cabinet for Health Services and the University of Kentucky.
- Open Wide or Lock Jaw (2003) – Issue brief on children’s dental health access in Kentucky produced by Kentucky Youth Advocates.
- Kentucky’s Cavity (2005) –Report by Kentucky Youth Advocates on parents’ concerns on children’s dental care in their communities based on findings from focus groups.
- Healthy Kentucky Smiles: A Lifetime of Oral Health (2006) – Statewide Oral Health Strategic Plan for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
- Kentucky Dental Provider Workforce Analysis: 1998-2006 – Report prepared by the University of Louisville on the trend of dental providers available in Kentucky from 1998-2006.
- The Cost of Delay: Kentucky (2010) – Fact sheet on the status of Kentucky children’s dental health needs prepared by the Pew Center on the States.
- State Oral Health Profile: Kentucky – Information and data related to dental health care in Kentucky compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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