Oral Health Committee

You can’t have a healthy body without a healthy mouth.

Children and families are a main focus of recommendations created by MIAAP and the 30-member Michigan Access to Oral Health Care Work Group. The report outlines concrete strategies and solutions to make sure people aren’t forced to go without dental care.

Oral health is vital to overall physical health.

Regular preventive dental appointments can uncover oral health problems before they become more serious and more costly to treat.

Untreated dental disease can lead to other costly health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The recommendations include:

• Make sure physicians and nurses are trained to do oral screenings and create partnerships so that the responsibility for oral health is shared between medical and oral health professionals.
• Issue state guidelines outlining physician responsibilities in oral health.
• Study how other health providers, such as dental hygienists or nurses, might deliver oral health care.
• Find dedicated funding to ensure dental care for low-income children and families.
• Step up education efforts on the link between oral health and physical health, especially via social media.

Read the complete Access to Oral Health Care Work Group report.