MAY 2019 | FUTUREOFPERSONALHEALTH.COM
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ACCESS TO ORAL HEALTH Dustin Plunkett
Learn how early dental surgery and therapy helped Plunkett achieve success as a TV personality, special needs athlete mentor, and public speaker.
Find out why childhood doesn’t have to be synonymous with getting cavities
Discover why it’s time certi�ıed PAs in dental health get the attention they deserve
Why You Should Care About Your Kid’s Cavities Cavities aren’t a rite of passage for growing children, but a costly, inconvenient, and sometimes corrosive abnormality. Parenting is an exhausting job, and often the one thing that gets left by the wayside is kids’ oral health. After all, cavities are a normal part of childhood, right? Wrong. Cavities may be common, but they are not normal. They’re an infection in the mouth caused by germs, and, if left alone, can become very expensive to treat. Not the new normal Though cavities could fall out with baby teeth, more often they dissolve the tooth down to the nerve. And when baby teeth decay early, it can impact the health and placement of the permanent tooth coming in behind it, causing crooked teeth. Start them early, save big Even if the decaying tooth does fall out, original germs can remain, infecting other teeth. That is why preventing cavities begins at birth, and starts with cleaning your baby’s teeth after feedings, and brushing newly formed teeth with toothpaste to reduce or eliminate germs. By teaching your kids the importance of dental hygienic practices early, they will accept these routines as normal, and see decaying, cavity-infested teeth for what they are: not normal. Jill Malmgren, Executive Director, America’s ToothFairy
Making the Most of Your Dental Visit Neil J. Gajjar D.D.S., M.A.G.D., President, Academy of General Dentistry
Though dentist visits might be low on your list of priorities, oral health check-ins now could mean fewer expensive medical bills in the future. Scheduling regular dental care appointments can be difficult in this busy world we live in. But because the first signs of many illnesses are revealed in the mouth, your general dentist is often on the frontlines of your health. Regular exams help your dentist keep your mouth in tip-top shape and spot indicators of problems elsewhere in your body, like poor nutrition and hygiene or improper jaw
alignment. Regular checkups for children, starting at age one, will kickstart early dental hygiene habits needed for oral health. No issue is too small for your dentist to know I encourage my patients to tell me everything about their health, even if they don’t think it relates to their mouths. Similarly, you should communicate to your dentist about any past surgeries or major illnesses in the past. You and your dentist should also discuss treatment options and plans, insurance coverage, and billing, so that you have access to care well into the future.
Are you relocating? Make sure to talk with your regular dentist to find another practice before you move. Or, if your employers are changing insurance providers, you and your current dentist can work through this process together to make sure you will continue to be covered. Good oral health is more than just a great smile By working closely with your dentist, you involve yourself in your treatment plan, making sure it works for you. Before engaging a new dental office, reach out to see how they can help. Like in my practice, they should educate you on all your options, to treat small problems before they become big ones. Oral health is more than just a great smile — it can also affect your quality of life. Your general dentist is responsible for the diagnosis, treatment, management, and overall coordination of services related to your oral health needs. They’re there to protect the whole you. n
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MI SSI ON
To Facilitate the Delivery of Charitable Oral Health Care to the Underserved
I MPACT
200 Clinics in 31 States • 285,000 Patients Served • $200 Million in Donated Dental Care
Since 2008, our equipment and expertise have helped make large-scale charitable dental clinics possible. 2 • FUTUREOFPERSONALHEALTH.COM
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D O N AT E AT: A D C F. N E T MEDIAPLANET
% Hispanic 42% African American adults 36 adults compared to 22% Caucasians
4X
VALUE Expand access by promoting health equity and paying providers for value over volume
CARE Better and prevention-focused care that goes beyond the dental chair and into communities
85% of Advantage Dental services provided to children in 2015 were preventive or diagnostic the national sample of 77% inMedicaid-enrolled children
INNOVATION Investment in future-focused solutions like advancing medicaldental integration for a more integrated health experience
TRANSFORMATION It takes powerful partnerships and collaboration to achieve quality oral health care and measurably healthier communities.
Forget Everything You Knew About Dental Implants Over the years, dental implants have proven a successful, effective, and affordable way to get and keep that perfect smile. When it comes to achieving or maintaining our ideal smiles, there are a lot of options available to us. Of them, dental implants are one of the most effective. Dental implants are the most natural-looking and natural-feeling replacement options, that also keep your jawbone healthy, facial structure intact, and free from slipping or clicking. Not an experimental procedure Innovations in modern dental implants are consistently making them more effective and customizable. For example, 3D digital imaging and implant software has made procedures faster and more predictable. Your dentist can use these tools to determine the number and location of teeth being replaced, the number of implants, and need for additional care, to save you time and money in advance. Is your dentist qualified? When performed by a trained, experienced implant dentist, implant surgery is one of the safest, most predictable procedures in the field. Though people often feel uncertain about their dentist’s expertise, patients should, “Ask questions about your dentist’s specializations and whether or not he or she places implants,” says American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) president Dr. Natalie Wong. You can also visit the AAID’s consumer site for information on implants and locate an AAID-credentialed member. Marilyn Mages, Acting Director of Marketing and Communications, American Academy of Implant Dentistry
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Special Olympics Role Model Spreads Message of Oral Care Special needs athlete Dustin Plunkett turned every obstacle into a learning experience, and every challenge into a success. Growing up, Dustin Plunkett had a speech impediment and slurred his words. Who knew the kid who had a tough time making friends would grow up to be both a TV broadcaster and a mentor for athletes with special needs? Plunkett, age 37, who also has an intellectual disability, wasn’t able to pronounce words with the letters S, T, or P as a child. “All you would hear was more air than sound,” Plunkett says. “It was hard for me to talk and communicate and make friends.” Then, in fifth grade, his speech therapist diagnosed him with a cleft pal-
ate, a condition in which the roof of the mouth, the palate, doesn’t properly join together while the fetus is in utero. Plunkett is grateful for that diagnosis, as well as for the fourhour surgery and threemonth recovery that followed, during which he was only able to eat soft foods delivered by syringe. After the operated area healed, Plunkett attended remedial speech therapy, which over time helped him overcome his stuttering and slurring. “It changed things a lot,” he says. “I was able to communicate better. I wasn’t scared to go and talk to people and try to make friends.” A Special Olympics rising star After those early experiences, Plunkett became
more heavily involved in team sports and activities. Over 20 years ago he joined Special Olympics Southern California, in which he took up softball (his favorite sport), floor hockey, basketball, flag football, tennis, and bowling. It was at one of these sporting events that, in 2004, Plunkett’s coach asked him why his cheeks were swollen, and if he was in pain. Though Plunkett wasn’t in pain, he listened to his coach when he encouraged him to get
PHOTO: COURTESY OF PHIL ELLSWORTH
Your Certified PA Is Your Next Best Friend
his cheeks checked out at Special Smiles during the summer games. The Special Smiles program is part of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® initiative, which offers free health and dental screenings to athletes. “I was diagnosed with gum cancer,” says Plunkett, who after the diagnosis had oral surgery to remove the cancer. “Since this saved my life, now I always say that my heart is always in our Healthy Athletes program, especially Spe-
cial Smiles. You never know what’s wrong with you until you get screened.” The experience was so impactful that Plunkett has since gone on to encourage other athletes to get screened themselves. In particular, Plunkett remembers urging one athlete experiencing mouth pain to get it checked out. The tests revealed that this athlete had a broken lower jaw that had also become infected. Empowering patients is an important part of the work Plunkett does. He recalls
doctors informing his parents about his diagnoses and treatments, rather than directly to him. Plunkett wants medical and dental schools to better teach doctors how to work with patients of all abilities. “Our doctors that are a part of Healthy Athletes and Special Smiles are trained to work with people with intellectual disabilities and can really communicate on our level with us,” he says. “They tell us everything that’s going on, what’s wrong, and how to fix it.” Plunkett, leader of leaders From humble beginnings, Plunkett now runs the Special Olympics athlete leadership program, and feels blessed and thankful to be in this role, to share his story, and to help others share and write their own. “I started out so shy and not outgoing,” he remembers. “And now I’m all outgoing and sharing everything with the world.” That once-shy kid just so happened to be an on-air broadcaster for ESPN’s coverage of the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games and the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games. n Kristen Castillo
Quality dental care doesn’t always come in the form of a dentist. Certified physician assistants do a lot of the heavy lifting. The mouth is a window into the body. So, if your teeth and gums aren’t well, it will be hard for the rest of you to stay healthy. Certified PAs are your partners in dental care, ready to intervene before oral health issues turn into overall health concerns. The 131,000 certified PAs in the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) are trained to address how oral disease can affect chronic conditions, like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and educate patients about the importance of oral self-care. By illuminating the links between oral and whole-body health, certified PAs can help ensure both. Certified PAs expand access to quality dental and preventative oral healthcare by providing frontline screening, risk assessment, and counseling services. These offerings are especially important for the nearly 58 million people in the United States who live in areas where it is difficult to access care. Certified PAs bridge the gaps in access to care for more than 473 million patient visits annually. They are often the first to identify and treat dental and other issues. So when your certified PA says, “Open wide,” they know what they’re doing. Dawn Morton-Rias, Ed. D., PA-C, President and CEO, NCCPA and The NCCPA Health Foundation
MEDIAPLANET • 5
Demand for Special Needs Dental Care Providers Is on the Rise
healthcare providers, like physicians and psychiatrists, in dealing with patients’ medical conditions and in the need for sedation and general anesthesia.
Delivering oral healthcare to the special needs population has never been more pressing. More trained dentists and dental hygienists is the answer.
A
pproximately 57 million Americans have a disability complicating their lives. One challenge in particular for people with special needs and their caregivers is accessing and receiving adequate oral healthcare. Compared to the general population, people with a disability: • Have more untreated tooth decay • Have a higher prevalence of gum disease, if intellectual disabilities are present • Are more prone to develop orthodontic problems as children • Have more problems related to trauma of the mouth and face
Consequently, two-thirds of residential facilities for people with disabilities report that inadequate access to dental care is a significant issue demanding immediate and focused attention. The three levels of care Oral healthcare, for both the disabled and general populations, can be generally divided into three levels: • Emergent care, or treating an emergency condition • Preventative care against future disease or the worsening of current oral disease • Restorative care to rehabilitate oral function
A call for training Training in the oral care of persons with special needs is taught in dental schools and residency programs of pediatric dentistry, geriatrics, general practice, and advanced education in general dentistry. However, evidence suggests that there is a significant shortage of dental providers for this particular population. State and federal funding for higher education is essential to dental schools and residency programs in expanding or increasing training for oral providers to care for patients with special needs. While access to care can be a main concern, a provider database, such as the one in South Carolina, has proven helpful in identifying trained providers willing to provide care to patients with special needs. n
Even though patients with special needs may require more time and effort in their care, access to all three of these levels is as essential for patients with special needs as it is for those without. Dentists and dental hygienists caring for people with special needs require extensive knowledge of medical, mental, and behavioral health, patients’ fears and feelings, and their other impairments, such as limited hearing or sight. Providers must possess the knowledge and skills to provide mild to moderate levels of sedation, when needed, or even oral care delivered in an operating room under general anesthesia. Dental providers must also work effectively with
Jeffrey Hicks, D.D.S., Member, Special Care Dentistry Association
STORYTELLERS WITH A PURPOSE.
FU TU R EO FP ER SO N A LH EA H LT .C O M
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Ful�ılling her promise, one dentist is making sure that everyone everywhere has access to quality, a�fordable dental care. Now that’s something to smile about.
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ood oral health is key to good overall health. This is the message Dr. Carmen Kamas-Wieting promotes regularly to patients at home in Bellaire, TX and across the globe while serving as an international medical volunteer with Operation Smile and chair of the Operation Smile Dental Advisory Council. “Educating patients, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, on the pitfalls of bad oral health and how to maintain good oral health is a consistent theme,” says Kamas-Wieting. “We know good oral hygiene reduces the risk of serious disease, while bad oral health can have the opposite impact.”
And Dr. Kamas-Wieting should know — she has taken part in dozens of dental and cleft medical missions around the globe. Individuals born with a cleft lip (tear in the lip) or cleft palate (gap in the roof of the mouth) are subject to a host of health issues, including complications with speaking, eating, and hearing, which is why it is so crucial to treat these conditions early. The roadblocks to oral hygiene Unfortunately, in many countries, adults and children have drastically limited access to safe, effective, and well-timed surgery, dental care, and oral hygiene education. According to Kamas-Wieting, “Failure to
brush your teeth daily can lead to cavities, bad breath, and tooth decay. Conveying basic information about good oral health and encouraging patients to brush and floss regularly can make a big difference.” Kamas-Wieting has taken part in dozens of dental missions, and is aware of the impact culture can have on oral health. “It’s not unusual for patients to show up at a dental mission with missing teeth, or even stained teeth, which, in some cultures, is a sign of respect. There have been times where we’ve been asked by patients to not remove stains from their teeth,” said Kamas-Wieting. She recalls similar instances of resistance
to dental care during her many international dental missions, at which she has watched volunteers — including dentists and dental hygienists — perform hundreds of free screenings, fillings, and cleanings. Kamas-Wieting believes every person should have access to the same quality of care we would expect for ourselves and our family members. “I will continue to help spread smiles globally by doing my part to support free cleft care and dental care for people all around the world,” says Kamas-Wieting. ”I know doing so changes lives and offers hope.” n Nicole Bell, Director of Public Relations, Operation Smile MEDIAPLANET • 7
PHOTO: COURTESY OF OPERATION SMILE
This Dentist Is Taking on Oral Hygiene Around the World
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