Maine wants point out-stage dental overall health program

In their Maine Compass column printed on Could 20, Rep. Lori Gramlich and Dr. Steve Mills make a compelling situation for passing and funding L.D. 1501, An Act to Secure Oral Wellness for Small children in Maine. I will not repeat their fantastic arguments below, other than to endorse all they say about our options to increase oral overall health in Maine with many crucial expenditures, which includes L.D. 996, to prolong MaineCare’s dental protection to grown ups. That these charges have acquired unanimous committee support is noteworthy. They must also be passed and funded.

I want to broaden on the provision in L.D. 1501 to restore an oral health coordinator position within the Maine CDC, a crucial position for a state public overall health company. This man or woman will offer the important leadership and support to the University Oral Wellbeing Application, highlighted by Rep. Gramlich and Dr. Mills.

In addition, the occupation also indicates pinpointing gaps, locating state and federal assets, forging partnerships inside of and outside of governing administration, functioning to solve overall health inequities, addressing the relationships among serious disorders and oral wellness, and collaborating with other partners to create and increase Maine’s oral overall health workforce.

Maine desires a condition-stage, absolutely-functioning dental public health and fitness method with a committed program coordinator to serve as a useful resource for proof-based preventive community health ways and most effective procedures in utilizing community-stage programs, and to help in producing general public wellbeing policy.

As the very last man or woman to hold that posture, I know the likely it gives. I can add that the Maine CDC’s Oral Health Method was increasingly underneath-resourced even before the program was downsized and properly removed in 2015. Restoring the oral health and fitness coordinator place is a very important step in rebuilding that source, and this is the time to do it — because oral health and fitness is overall health.

 

Judith Feinstein

Hallowell