My tweets

• Thu, 12:32 : http://t.co/xPQgSQUrCV My tweets

from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/8620.html

My tweets

• Wed, 12:35 : http://t.co/B6ReKbBdhz My tweets


• Thu, 06:23 : ADA releases dental report to Congress http://t.co/29WeMk5Won


• Thu, 06:44 : http://t.co/dyroxZ8sR4 ADA releases dental report to Congress

from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/8397.html

ADA releases dental report to Congress

While the U.S. healthcare debate has focused on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, other issues such as access to dental care were pushed aside. In response, the ADA created the Action for Dental Health movement to address barriers to dental healthcare. Now, after a year, the efforts and solutions offered by the action were gathered in a report to the U.S. Congress.



“Millions of Americans continue to face barriers to dental care, which is why the ADA launched Action for Dental Health.”

— Charles H. Norman III, DDS, president, ADA



To document the efforts being made through the program, the ADA released the first "Action for Dental Health: Report to Congress" during the ADA's annual Washington Leadership Conference, held this week in Washington, DC.



"Millions of Americans continue to face barriers to dental care, which is why the ADA launched Action for Dental Health," said ADA President Charles H. Norman III, DDS. "While we have accomplished much in the first year, there is still much to do. This 'Report to Congress' serves as a continued call to action for elected officials, health policy organizations, community leaders, and the dental community to come together to bridge the dental divide."



The ADA has set goals for Action for Dental Health, including the following:



Creating ER interception programs to reduce the burden on our nation's emergency rooms and improving dental health in 25 states by 2015, as well as 50 states and the District of Columbia by 2020.

Training at least 1,000 dentists to provide care in nursing homes, one of the most underserved populations, by 2020 and increasing the number of dentists serving on advisory boards or as dental directors of long-term care facilities.

Expanding programs that provide screening and treatment to help people in need connect with dentists for continuity of care and work to eliminate cavities in children younger than age 5 in the U.S. by 2020.

Improving the existing safety net and helping people connect with community resources and dentists who can provide care by increasing the number of states with active community dental heath coordinators (CDHCs) to 15 states by 2015. CDHCs provide dental health education and help people in underserved areas connect to community health resources and dentists for needed treatment. Currently, eight states have CDHCs.

Reducing the proportion of both adults and children younger than age 18 with untreated dental decay by 15% by 2020, exceeding the 10% Healthy People 2020 goal by 50%.

Increasing the proportion of low-income children who received any preventive dental services during the past year by 15% by 2020, exceeding the 10 % Healthy People 2020 goal by 50%.

The report also outlines four strategies and corresponding programs that are contributing to the success of the movement:



Providing care now. This includes hospital emergency room referral programs to connect people with severe dental pain to dentists who can provide needed treatment and expanding programs such as Give Kids A Smile, which currently provides dental services to approximately 400,000 underserved children at more than 1,500 events.

Strengthening and expanding the public/private safety net by fighting for increased dental health protections under Medicaid and helping more dentists work with community health centers and clinics.

Bringing disease prevention and education into communities through CDHCs.

Working to pass legislation at the federal and state levels that support Action for Dental Health initiatives. The Action for Dental Health Act (HR 4395) would provide grants to support programs such as expanding care for the elderly in nursing homes, encouraging dentists to contract with federally qualified health centers, increasing health protections and simplifying administration under Medicaid, expanding community water fluoridation, increasing the number of CDHCs, and strengthening collaborations with other health professionals and organizations.

To review detailed goals for Action for Dental Health, or to download the "Action for Dental Health: Report to Congress," visit the ADA website.



Visit us: http://www.hillsidefamilydentalcenter.com/



from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/7997.html

My tweets

• Tue, 12:28 : http://t.co/24BZftuAp2 My tweets

from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/7815.html

My tweets

• Mon, 12:14 : http://t.co/WP3kHNJ09D My tweets


• Tue, 06:19 : Energy drinks and frequent meals mean bad oral health for athletes http://t.co/BYGxlmtolN


• Tue, 06:43 : http://t.co/gInej64ewU Energy drinks and frequent meals mean bad oral health for athletes

from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/7642.html

Energy drinks and frequent meals mean bad oral health for athletes

Faster, higher, stronger they may be, but Olympians wouldn’t win many medals in a contest of dental health. Behind their buffed physiques lurks a dentist’s nightmare.



“They have bodies of Adonis and a garbage mouth,” says Paul Piccininni. As dental director for the International Olympic Committee, the Toronto-based Piccininni is intimately familiar with the broken teeth, abscesses, decay and other dental issues that force hundreds of Olympians into dentists’ chairs at every Games.



MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

• 
  


• Unhealthy diets pose greater threat to health than tobacco: UN investigator


• 
  


• Teens deserve a public health voice


• 
  


• Eating your daily fruit intake is healthier than drinking it


• 
  

Among them Michael Jordan. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where basketball’s superstar in the making was top scorer on the gold-medal-winning U.S. team, Jordan “had a significant dental problem that could have kept him out of a game,” Piccininni told the Associated Press in an interview at a conference on sports injuries.

The AP sent Jordan a text message to ask about the tooth issue, but he didn’t respond. Piccininni, bound by medical secrecy requirements, also wouldn’t give details.

“I know, but I shouldn’t say,” Piccininni said. “We’ve seen the best of the best.”

Honing their bodies through intense physical effort, athletes refuel with energy drinks, gels and bars and frequent meals, which teeth don’t like. Dehydration from sweating can also cut the production of saliva needed to regenerate tooth enamel.

Some rowers, for example, have “huge amounts of decay” because they’re training in boats for hours at a time, refuelling with teeth-eroding acidic, sugary drinks, said Tony Clough, who set up the dental clinic for Olympians at the 2012 London Games. Located in the athletes village, it had 30 dentists and 1,900 visits.

“We had patients coming in at 10:30 at night to have root canals and things like that,” said Clough.

A study that looked at 278 of the clinic’s visitors found 55 per cent had cavities and three-quarters diseased gums, mostly gingivitis but also 15 per cent with more serious periodontitis. One-quarter said dental problems affected their quality of life. The British Journal of Sports Medicine published the study last September.

“The oral health of athletes is worse than the oral health of the general population,” Piccininni said. “Considerably worse.”

An abscessed lower-left wisdom tooth threatened to keep British rower Alan Campbell from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The infection spread to his shoulder, back and eventually settled in his right knee, requiring surgery two months before the games and ruining his training. He placed fifth in the Olympic single-sculls final and feels that he “certainly would have gone quicker” had the infected tooth not laid him so low, keeping him out of his boat for six weeks.

At the London Games four years later, Campbell won bronze. He’s certain that taking better care of his teeth has helped him row faster. He says he now flosses more, tends to drink water rather than sugary drinks, is “more aware of how important dental hygiene is to me and my body” and “if I thought I had any problems I would just have a tooth removed.

“I’m not saying someone with perfect teeth is going to beat Usain Bolt,” Campbell said in a phone interview with the AP. “But myself with good dental hygiene versus myself with bad dental hygiene: The version of me with good dental hygiene will be the one that comes out on top, I’m certain of it.”

Generally, teeth are most at risk among people ages 16 to 25, when they fly the family nest, perhaps party more and brush less, Clough said. That’s also the age group of many Olympians, which helps explain why so many have problem teeth.

But other suspected causes appear more athlete-specific. Frequent travel for competition or training can get in the way of regular dental check-ups. The wear of long flights might also be a factor, because Olympic dentists see “a huge big leap” in dental infections in the first week of the Games, said Clough.

Clenching teeth during strenuous effort, like lifting weights, can also grind them down.

“You could land the Space Shuttle” on some athletes’ teeth, said Piccininni. “Flat as a pancake. They have worn it down so much.”

Rowers breathe up to 80 times a minute in competition, and burn through 6,000 calories and eat five times a day, Campbell noted.

“A lot of pressure is going through the mouth,” he said. At the Athens Olympics in 2004, “I was grinding my teeth in my sleep and I was waking up with a very sore jaw and sore teeth as well and I had a special gum-shield to wear at night to sleep with.

“That was the stress. It was my first Olympics. I was quite young. I was 21. I think I was feeling the pressure,” he said.

The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic clinic will have eight dental chairs, X-ray machines, root-canal specialists and surgical facilities. There will be full-time dentists at hockey, rugby and basketball for any injuries. The clinic will also distribute mouth guards. They handed out 350 in London and 150 at the Sochi Winter Olympics this February, including to four Austrian ice-hockey players after a teammate lost a tooth in their first game.

Treatment is free.

Some Olympians “know they’ve had a dental problem for three weeks or a month or three months, but they know if they can hold off until they get to the Games they get it treated for free,” Piccininni said. “That’s fine. That’s one of the reasons that we’re there, is because athletes don’t have the financial resources.”



Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/energy-drinks-frequent-meals-mean-bad-oral-health-for-althletes/article18745714/



Visit us: http://www.hillsidefamilydentalcenter.com/

from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/7218.html

My tweets

• Sun, 12:12 : http://t.co/28V6I77TbS My tweets

from hillsidedental http://hillsidedental.livejournal.com/7087.html