Oral Health Advocates From Across the State Convene for Oral Health Forum

Approximately 190 oral health care advocates and stakeholders from across the state—and a few from and the nation’s capital—attended “Putting the Mouth Back in the Body: Improving Oral Health Across the Commonwealth,” the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum’s conference on oral health, on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, at the Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston. The MDS, which cosponsored the event with the Oral Health Foundation, had a strong presence at this first-ever health forum on oral health, with more than 30 members and staff in attendance. The Health Policy Forum hosts several forums every year, but this was the first one on oral health.

MDS President Dr. David Samuels moderated the first of two panel discussions, this one on the state of oral health in Massachusetts, where panelists—including Senator Harriette Chandler, chair of the Legislative Oral Health Caucus, and Catherine Hayes, professor of public health and community services at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine—discussed the progress oral health advocates have made in the last few years in addressing the access issue, specifically the passage earlier this year of the Omnibus Oral Health Bill. The MDS led the effort in the passage of this bill, which was sponsored on behalf of the MDS by Sen. Chandler. Specifically, the panelists discussed the progress and barriers to access to care for two segments of the state's population—children and elders. 

The second panel discussion was moderated by Ralph Fucillo, president of the DentaQuest Foundation, on future steps to improve access to oral care for Massachusetts residents. Panelists—including Representative John Scibak, chair of the Legislative Oral Health Caucus, and Conan Davis, chief dental officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—discussed next steps in alleviating the access to care issue. Other topics covered by the second panel included the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) program and the Senator Edward Kennedy-supported health care reform bill.

As part of this forum, a research study/issue brief on oral health was conducted by the Health Policy Forum, which is based at Brandeis University in Waltham. The issue brief was distributed to all attendees at the forum. According to the study’s executive summary, the “recent passage of the Omnibus Oral Health Bill was an important step in improving access to oral health services for Massachusetts residents.”

As the oral health leader in Massachusetts, the MDS became involved in the forum as a means to further highlight the disparities in access to care in the Commonwealth and to share the Society’s five-year vision plan to address the many oral health care issues in the state. In January, the MDS released its comprehensive Call to ACTION plan, which features a step-by-step process for offering practical solutions to many oral health issues, such as readily available access to oral care and community water fluoridation as a means to diminish caries.

“This was a major benchmark collaboration in the launch of our Call to ACTION,” says MDS Executive Director Robert Boose, EDd. “The Forum provided policymakers and oral health leaders the opportunity to exchange ideas and views that will start the forward thinking we need to develop effective statewide policies and resources to increase access to oral health care in Massachusetts.”
 The Massachusetts Health Policy Forum is compiling the findings from the June 16 forum into a policy brief, which will be posted on its Web site at www.masshealthpolicyforum.brandeis.edu.

Download the Complete Oral Health Policy Issue Brief