Friday, September 08, 2000
Plan: Expand Ohio dental care
Needy, kids may get more help
By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The city dental clinic on Spring Grove Avenue in Northside is as clean, modern and well-equipped as any dental office in town.
Trouble is, the low-income people who hope to sit in its chairs can wait up to a year and a half for a routine ap pointment. Meanwhile, as many as 4,000 Tristate residents a year wind up requiring emergency dental care from University Hospital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
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• Build more dental clinics and expand existing ones.
• Encourage dentists to work in low-income areas with no-interest loans, tax incentives and subsidized liability insurance.
• Expand school-based dental-sealant programs.
• Require dental screenings for schoolchildren, much like requirements for vision and hearing tests.
• Expand dental coverage through the state's Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program.
• Increase Medicaid payment rates to dentists to more closely match private insurance rates.
• Hire a private company to administer the state Medicaid dental program.
• Increase public education campaigns about oral health.
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When it comes to dental care in Ohio, that's the good news. Unlike the city of Cincinnati, which offers five dental clinics serving thousands of patients, many Ohio communities have been forced to end their dental services — if they ever offered them.
Calling a long-running lack of dental care for the poor the “No. 1 unmet health-care need of Ohioans,” Dr. J. Nick Baird, director of Ohio's Department of Health, visited Cincinnati on Thursday to talk about plans to improve dental services statewide.
“This is impressive. This is one of the best models in the state,” Dr. Baird said as he toured the city's Northside clinic. “But the unmet need is tremendous.”
Since November, a task force of legislators, dentists and public health officials has been meeting to recommend ways to improve access to dental care.
A draft plan could be ready within weeks to submit to Gov. Bob Taft, Dr. Baird said. The administration would then make a proposal, perhaps by year's end, to the legislature.
The draft plan calls for:
• Increased Medicaid funding for dental care.
• Building more dental clinics statewide.
• Offering interest-free loans or other tax incentives to encourage more dentists to practice in low-income areas.
How much the plan might cost, and how soon state officials would push for the money, remain undecided. At least some financial proposals are likely for Ohio's next biennial budget, Dr. Baird said. Most likely, it will take five to 10 years to carry out the entire plan, officials said.
“This is a long-term plan. The important thing is that we're beginning to build awareness,” Dr. Baird said. “As legislators begin to recognize the importance of dental care to public health, we hope they will have an open mind for funding.”
Increased state support can't come soon enough for Larry Hill, director of dental services at the Cincinnati Health Department and one of the region's most outspoken advocates of oral health.
“Five of our six health clinics have dental clinics, and we're still overwhelmed,” Dr. Hill said. “We've got school nurses and Head Start programs saying they can't get dental care for their kids.”
Meanwhile, dental care for people in nursing homes, for people with developmental disabilities and the homeless are “glaringly inadequate,” Dr. Hill said.
Untreated dental problems can lead to serious health trouble and significant costs to society, Dr. Hill said. Some studies have linked oral infections to heart disease. Others show that students can't learn when their teeth hurt so much they can't sleep. Adults with bad teeth often struggle to get jobs and promotions.
Yet in the past three years, dental services for the poor have generally declined in Greater Cincinnati. Hamilton County's health department, which operates outside city borders, has closed three dental clinics. The independent Lincoln Heights Health Center also has dropped dental care.
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