Health professionals in Washington State are taking a new look at what has been termed the most neglected body part – the mouth. Think about it for a second: it’s a crazy system that ensures our arms and legs and leaves our mouths unprotected. As the U.S. Surgeon General pointed out in the nation’s first-ever report in oral health last year, the mouth is an early warning system, signaling trouble in other parts of the body. Put another way, if your mouth isn’t healthy, neither is your body. “So what?” you might be tempted to say. Common sense has dictated attention to the relationship between body parts for a long time. Has it taken doctors all this time to figure it out? The truth is that distinctions between the way we practice medicine have contributed to the division between oral health and overall health – for children. Dentists do the former and pediatricians the latter. If there were enough dentists to go around, and enough money to make sure everyone could afford them, there would be no problem. But there aren’t and the odds aren’t getting any better that every child will get the early prevention and treatment he or she needs. In Washington State, one-third of all dentists are over 55 years old. The number of dentists in our state is likely to decline at a time when parts of 23 counties have been designated federal “Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas.” The result is that many children never get the care they need to grow up healthy and disease-free. Only one-fifth of children age one to three who are eligible for medical assistance actually receive dental care. As a result, one in seven low-income Washington children is reported by the child’s parents to have unmet dental needs – a rate 50 percent higher that the national average. For middle-class parents, cost can be a barrier. Fully 40 percent of employees in Washington State lack dental coverage. Nationally, we pay about 48 percent of all dental bills out of pocket. For every child without medical insurance, there are 2.6 without dental insurance. Another way to prevent oral disease and tooth decay is to fluoridate the water. In Washington State, half of our population lives in communities without fluoride-protected water. The obstacle to this solution is hardly cost. Per person, community water fluoridation is far less expensive that the cost of a single filling. More likely, the obstacle is political will and the manipulation of public opinion by people who do not understand public health. We’ve witnessed several of these battles in recent months in our state, where a small band of ill-informed alarmists prevent children from getting long-term oral health protection. It is this set of facts that has driven doctors out of the comfort of their own specific practices and into the unfamiliar realm of community coalition-building. Unless we raise our voices for Washington’s children, who will make the case for better oral health programs and policies? That’s why you will see more and more pediatricians and public health professionals signing on to the Citizen’s Watch for Kid’s Oral Health in the months to come. It’s a diverse coalition of business and labor leaders, health professional, educators and child advocates who have come together to speak up for kids’ oral health. Their motto is “Watch Your Mouth,” and you may see your child return from a visit to the pediatrician’s office with a Watch Your Mouth Sticker or tattoo. . We want to alert parents to the importance of safeguarding their children’s oral health. And, we want to enlist Washington residents in our efforts to put in place the kinds of community programs and policies that will ensure the oral health of Washington children. Every day doctors see children who suffer from asthma. But tooth decay is now five times more common than asthma, making it the most chronic childhood disease in America. If we want healthy children, doctors and dentist are going to have to make oral health a common cause with smart parents and community leaders who are ready to use their mouths to speak up for the health of all children in our state. It’s a safe bet that good public policies for children won’t happen unless we do. An old folk saying has relevance here: Put your money where your mouth is. You can learn more about the watch your mouth campaign and how you can help by visiting the Web site, www.kidsoralhealth.org, by calling 206.616.1833. NEWS