Dentaltown May 2013 - (Page 100)

hygiene and prevention profile in oral health by Rhoda P. Kublickis, RDH, MHSc from a live tooth? Why should teeth be extracted? Why should a patient die because of a dental abscess? These questions puzzled me since dental disease is preventable. A more haunting question is why don’t people know that dental disease is preventable? Why do they believe caries and periodontal disease are inevitable? Why is the preventive message of the dental profession falling on deaf ears? During this soul-searching time, I was working for a dentist in Fort Lauderdale. This luxurious and upscale dental practice faced the Intracoastal Waterway. It was not uncommon to have families put off regular dental hygiene visits with the excuse they were too expensive. One family in particular had six children and by the time all of them had radiographs, prophylaxis and fluoride, it cost the parents the equivalent of an expensive Prada purse! Strangely enough, some people would rather buy the Prada purse than purchase preventive dental care. It was puzzling to me that my own mother had a matching purse for every pair of shoes she owned, but in her family growing up, there wasn’t enough money for preventive care. Why is more value placed on discretionary purchases than on oral health care? Remarkably, even those with free dental care choose to have the best shoes and electronic games for their children rather than pay for preventive services to ensure good oral health. This interest in prevention provided the foundation for my master’s degree research project. At the request of my adviser, Dr. Inge Ford, I gathered emergency room data on dental visits in Martin County, Florida. According to the 2010 Martin County Community Health Assessment, the most difficult health service to obtain was dental care. A majority of the respondents, 69 percent, received routine physicals whereas only half received routine dental exams. Quiñonez (2011) noted that lower and middle income groups were the populations who reported to the emergency room for dental emergencies. The lower and middle income groups earned too much for public support and worked in jobs that did not offer dental insurance as part of the benefits package. This combination of circumstances led them to the emergency room for care rather than paying for regular dental visits. No value was placed on preventive services. Even though patients might choose to spend money on a Prada purse rather than investing on maintenance of their children’s oral health, it makes you wonder if they really understand that making a choice in favor of preventive services provided by a dental hygienist has the potential to last a lifetime. Parents need to be aware of the consequences of keeping the deciduous teeth in the mouth, therefore allowing for guidance of permanent teeth into the correct position. If permanent teeth are clean and healthy, it usually results in healthy bone around teeth, allowing teeth to be kept for a lifetime. Effective prevention services last longer and are more valuable than any Prada purse! This message was lost with my grandmother who grew up in the Philippines. It was too late for prevention when my mother had a toothache and the dentist gave two choices: fill the tooth for $4 or extract the tooth for $4. My grandmother’s logic was to extract the tooth, as then it would no longer be in the mouth to cause pain. Filling the tooth left it in the mouth and perhaps it would decay again and cause more pain and more expense. By the age of 17, my mother had no maxillary teeth and wore a denture. Her mother thought she has made the right decision for her daughter. It was my mother who broke the cycle of extractions and ignorance about dental health in our family. As a child, I remember her brushing her upper denture and telling us stories of how poor her family was, so poor that my grandmother could not properly pay for dentistry until my mother was in such pain that she had no choice but to extract the tooth. I was nine when my family moved to the U.S. from the Philippines. Every six months my siblings and I would go to our dentist and hygienist for our bi-annual check-ups. My sister and I always had several carious lesions. I did not realize at the time that it was not just home care, but other multi-factorial issues that contributed to our dental demise. In the pursuit of saving my teeth and avoiding the dreaded denture my mother had, I completed my college education in the field of dental hygiene, becoming licensed in 1983. I worked toward my master’s degree in a program that challenged me and helped me find my passion for public awareness of dental hygiene as the oral health profession. Just thinking about dental decay, brought up many questions to ponder: Why should enamel, the hardest substance in the body simply breakdown? Why should a person need to have the hardest surface in the whole body drilled open to place a filling? Why should a patient have a nerve removed continued on page 102 100 MAY 2013 » dentaltown.com http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown May 2013

Dentaltown.com Highlights
Howard Speaks: Is Dentistry Getting Too Easy?
Professional Courtesy: High Tide for High Tech
Continuing Education Update
Industry News
Second Opinion: The Stainless-Steel Crown for Primary Molars
Special Second Opinion: Prevent a Tulsa Repeat
Simple Two-implant CT Guided Case
Does Your Staff Ask for Referrals?
Your 2013 Website Optimization Starts Today
I Attended Your CE and All I Got Was This Crappy Notebook
Dentaltown Research: CAD/CAM
New Products
DIY Finance, Part VI: Red Flags and Scams
Employee Working Interviews: They’re Legal, Aren’t They?
The Sleeping Giant in Your Practice
What’s on My Tray? Prep and Impression, Crown and Bridge
Continuing Education: Articaine and Paresthesia in Dental Anesthesia: Neurotoxicity or Procedural Trauma?
Concentric Circles Dentaltown’s annual focus on the charitable side of dentistry
All the Things Money Can’t Buy
Taking on Pro-bono Cases
Doing Good and Doing Well
Global Dental Relief
Giving Thanks, One Smile at a Time
Big Help on a Local Level
Oral Health America
You Should Know: Climb for a Cause
In This Issue: Where Should Prevention Begin?
Perio Reports
Ad Index
Profile in Oral Health Prada or Prevention: A Look at Public Health and Oral Health
Dentally Incorrect

Dentaltown May 2013