TX Dental Report Card
By Dr. Linda Niessen -- Baylor College of Dentistry STORY: TX Dental Report Card SCRIPT #510 SHOOT: 5/2/03
Monday, May 05, 2003
Millions of Texas families do not get adequate dental care. Cost remains a barrier. In 70 Texas counties, there are no dentists.
So when the Chicago based group, Oral Health America, graded each state in the nation this year, Texas earned an overall C minus.
At this year’s Texas Dental Association meeting in San Antonio, dentists debated the issue of access. Texas gets its lowest rating of all on access to dental care — a disappointing D minus.
“We don’t have the access to dental care that we need in Texas,” Dr. Mickey Vaclav of the Texas Dental Association said.
Vaclav, an Amarillo dentist, predicted Texas would get an F on its next oral health report card.
“Under the present situation with what the Legislature is doing right now in oral health in Texas, it will be an F the next time the report card comes around, and it will be an unqualified F,” Vaclav said.
In Austin, many Texas lawmakers support cutbacks in the CHIP program, which provides low cost dental and medical services for children.
At their annual convention, Texas dentists blasted legislators who vote to cut small budgets for dental services, making them even smaller.
“And this is really going to hurt access to care for children which is our future,” Dr. Rise’ Lyman said.
“I think the budget shortfall in Austin will affect the access to care by the low income residents of this state,” Dr. Jim Reisman said.
Texas got a C for water fluoridation. Until very recently, San Antonio was the largest Texas city that didn’t add fluoride to the water supply. Finally, the Alamo city voters said yes to fluoride. So now, San Antonio residents are getting the extra protection against tooth decay that they need.
Montana received the worst grade in oral health among the 50 states. The national report card gave the highest marks to Connecticut, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Dr. Linda Niessen, clinical professor in the Department of Restorative Sciences and the Office of Communications and Development at Baylor College of Dentistry, hosts Dental Health Check, the only weekly dental feature shot on location in the nation.
