Policy and Advocacy

NNOHA strives to influence policy related to safety-net oral health programs and the integration of oral health into primary care.  NNOHA's policy objectives include:

• Promote inclusion of oral health in health policy issues.
• Educate NNOHA members to become effective advocates for access to high quality oral health services.
• Influence legislation, regulation and policy to improve oral health access.
• Engage in development of new dental team models.

Our Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships Committee guides NNOHA's advocacy activities. 

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Did you know?

• More than 141 million individuals had no dental insurance in 2009.
  --- Estimate from the NADP / DDPA report

• Tooth decay is the single most common chronic disease of childhood.
• Uninsured children are 2.5 times less likely than insured children to receive oral health care.
• Each year over 164 million hours are missed from work and 52 million hours from school due to oral health problems.
• Oral health related illness accounts for 6.1 million days of bed disability and 12.7 million days of restricted activity annually.
• Fifty-nine percent of children aged 5-17 and 85% of adults over 18 have caries experience in at least one tooth.
• Sixty-one percent of adults 25 years and older and 86% of adults 45 and older have at least one site of periodontal disease in the mouth.
  --- U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General,
       “Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General” (2000)

• Among migrant children age 10-14, oral health is the most common health problem, and age 15-19, it is the second most common health problem.
  --- HRSA National Advisory Council on Migrant Health,
      “National Advisory Council on Migrant Health (NACMH) Recommendations” (2006)
  
  
• 6.5 million children on Medicaid age 2-18 have untreated decay.
  --- Government Accountability Office, “Extent of Dental Disease in Children Has Not Decreased, and Millions Are Estimated to Have Untreated Tooth Decay” (2008)
  
  
• American Indian and Alaska Native children ages two to four have five times the rate of decay as all children.
  --- GAO, “Oral Health, Factors Contributing to Low Use of DentalServices by Low-Income Populations (2000)
  
  
• 21% of children 6 to 11 and 59% of adolescents 12 to 19 have had dental caries in their permanent teeth.  23% of children 2 to 11 have untreated dental caries, and 23% of adolescents 12 to 19 have untreated decay. 
  --- National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research,
      "1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey."
  
  
• Preventive care, early detection and treatment that dental benefits encourage save the U.S. $4 billion annually. Every $1 spent on prevention saves $4 in treatment. 
  --- Delta Dental, “Rational Health Care Reform: The Role of Dental Benefits,” (2009)
  
  
• Enrollment at dental schools plummeted from 6,301 in 1978 to 4,612 in 2004, resulting in fewer new dentists being educated.
  --- American Dental Education Association, “Trends in DentalEducation,” (2006)
  
  
• As of September 30, 2009, there were 4,230 Dental HPSAs with 49 million people living in them. It would take 9,642 practitioners to meet their need for dental providers (a population to practitioner ratio of 3,000:1).
  --- HRSA / BPHR, "Shortage Designation: HPSAs, MUAs & MUPs"