February is Children’s Dental Health Month, but the latest oral health data shows there’s little to smile about.
One in four Florida third graders have untreated cavities. Neary one in four of Florida’s preschoolers have untreated tooth decay, triple the national average. To top it all off, nearly six million Floridians live in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas, meaning there are not enough dentists to serve the population. Sixty-six of Florida’s 67 counties have them.
Poor oral health in children is associated with depression, diabetes, bullying, school absenteeism, and even developmental delays. In other words, kids become afraid to smile. They struggle to show up to school, either for fear of bullying or pain. They suffer from more health problems than their peers. Poor oral health casts a shadow over a child’s entire life.
And all the data points to one conclusion: Florida is the worst state in the nation for oral health, especially for children.
For many families, finding a dentist isn’t so simple. In addition to the shortage areas, just under one in five Florida dentists accept Medicaid. The ones that do often have long waiting lists or require travel from far away.
According to Dr. Justin Katsur, owner of Yes! Dental and a dentist who treats Medicaid patients: “The most common request I receive is, ‘can you do this all today, we drove hours to be here.’”
When there are no dentists available, care is delayed and preventable oral health problems grow much worse. Eventually, the pain becomes so great that parents have no choice but to seek care for their kids in hospital emergency departments.
Sadly, these emergency departments aren’t able to treat the causes of oral health pain, only give temporary pain relief. Once the painkillers run out, the pain returns. Not only is this a temporary solution, but it’s also an expensive one, costing Floridia taxpayers nearly 1 billion dollars in 2024.
Although there is no single ‘silver bullet’ solution, there is one key part of the solution that is gaining momentum: implementation of dental therapy.
As Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) licensed mid-level members of the dental team, dental therapists provide the most needed routine and preventative services- exams, cleanings, and fillings- under dentist supervision. Dental therapy has been used for over 100 years in more than 50 countries—about 20 years in the U.S., where 15 states have currently authorized dental therapists to practice. States that have adopted dental therapy have seen shorter wait times, more preventive visits, and higher rates of children receiving care.
Dental therapists graduate from an American Dental Association (ADA) Commission on Dental Accreditation educational program and even complete the exact same licensing exam as dentists for the procedures they perform.
Employing dental therapists would not be mandatory, but many dentists would be interested in hiring them as part of the team. Allowing dental therapists to handle routine procedures would allow dentists to handle more advanced procedures and would also allow dental offices to see more patients overall.
Florida can’t afford to ignore its oral health crisis anymore. Until legislators act, children will continue being afraid to smile. Not just during Children’s Dental Health month in February, but every day of the year.