No Images? Click here Issue 3 - Spring 2019April is Oral Health MonthThe Niagara Peninsula Dental Association and Niagara Region Public Health & Emergency Services have launched a social marketing campaign to inform residents that Niagara's tap water is not fluoridated as well as promote the importance of fluoride treatments to prevent tooth decay. Tooth decay is the leading cause of day surgery among children one to five years of age. This means use of anesthesia, which, while generally safe, is not something we choose to use in children if it can be prevented. Fluoride prevents cavities by making the tooth enamel (the outside of the tooth) stronger. In adults, fluoride can help teeth to repair or remineralize themselves. It can reverse low levels of tooth decay and thus prevent new cavities from forming. School based dental screening rates continue to be unacceptably high with 39% of elementary aged students and 27% of kindergartners having at least one decayed, missing or filled (DMF) tooth (2017/2018) despite the increased access to various publicly funded preventive and treatment services. The emphasis on fluoride stems from our local decay data, presented above, and our local context. The Welland Water Treatment plant used to have fluoride added to water to optimize their levels, from about 1960 to 1999. The equipment started to break down, and so fluoridation ceased. No other water treatment plant serving Niagara has had fluoridation. Our multiple water treatment plants would need varying upgrades in order to provide fluoridated water across Niagara. So this month we are partnering to promote three key messages around fluoride:
A toolkit has been developed with the organic (unpaid) social media content to support local dental offices create their own FB and Twitter messages. As always, you can just retweet or share any of our posts from our following social media accounts: Contact dental@niagararegion.ca to order your social media toolkit or promotional posters. Healthy Smiles Ontario – Emergency and Essential Services Stream (HSO-EESS)HSO-EESS is designed to ensure that no child goes without emergency or essential dental care due to the inability to pay. Usually, public health staff will enroll eligible children & youth in HSO-EESS. However, there may be circumstances where a child is better served by enrolment directly by the dental office, particularly when the child is experiencing an emergency such as pain or trauma. When a parent calls us because their child is in pain or broke a tooth at school, they are required to attend one of our clinics to have the child enrolled in HSO-EESS and then proceed to a dental office for subsequent treatment. If the parent depends on public transportation, this situation becomes a lot more difficult and the child spends more time in pain. If the parent has an inflexible job, the burden is even greater on the child and more time lapses. Public health dental staff are excellent stewards of the HSO program and carefully assess, and advise on, each situation with the parent over the phone. In cases like these, and there are few, the child is better served by directing the parent to their dentist for immediate care if the dental practice is willing to manage the HSO-EESS enrolment form. Accerta will get back to you with an approval and HSO# within approximately 15 minutes of faxing the paperwork so that you may proceed with billing. If a child living in financial hardship presents to your office with an emergency outside of regular hours (Mon-Fri 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.), Accerta will pay you for the visit for eligible treatment of the relief of pain or emergency condition even if not yet enrolled in HSO, which is managed on the next business day. Even if the child is ineligible for treatment, Accerta will still pay for the assessment at the very least. A common question by dental offices is “How do I know if they are experiencing financial hardship?” You don’t have to “know” if they are or not. The parent makes a declaration to that effect by signing the EESS form. If you would like a member of our public health dental staff to come out to your dental practice to provide an in-service about Healthy Smiles Ontario, please reach out by calling us at 905-688-8248 ext. 7188. We’re here to help! Canada's New Food GuideThe new Food Guide is web-based and no longer a one-size-fits-all hard copy product as before. It is a ‘suite’ of resources and up-to-date information and advice on eating well. The new Food Guide takes a comprehensive approach as it includes tips and resources for being mindful, cooking more often, enjoying food, eating with others, recognizing the impact food has on the environment, etc. Reprocessing Critical Medical EquipmentTo support our local dental community achieve infection prevention and control (IPAC) standards, Niagara Region Public Health & Emergency Services has created a sterilization decision tree. This tool will help you navigate the process for packaging and releasing medical/dental instruments. To highlight the important role of reprocessing critical dental equipment has in preventing infectious diseases, here are some tips for reprocessing your critical items: - Prior to purchasing a sterilizer, ensure that it has been licenced for use as a medical device under Health Canada - All equipment and/or devices must be cleaned, dried, and packaged according to manufacturer’s instructions prior to sterilization - Items intended to be single-use are NOT to be reprocessed or reused - Biological indicators (BI) with control samples are to be run through the sterilizer during the first load of the day, and during any load that contains an implant - Log sheets must be kept for each sterilization load cycle; and are required to include physical, chemical, and biological indicator results Staff must be trained on the proper operation of their clinics sterilizer. Public Health Ontario offers on-line reprocessing modules to support staff with this training: http://www.publichealthontario.ca/ – IPAC Lapses. CDC Water Fluoridation Training CourseA free resource designed to build the capability of state fluoridation programs, and to help increase knowledge and refine skills to implement and maintain community water fluoridation. Precautionary measures for clients with oral piercings- Disinfect your oral jewellery regularly and brush the jewellery the same as you would your teeth - Avoid playing with and manipulating jewellery once it has been placed in the mouth to decrease the chances of getting an infection - Check the tightness of your jewellery periodically to prevent swallowing or choking if the jewelry becomes dislodged - Direct client to seek immediate medical or dental attention if they experience excessive bleeding, swelling or pain following a piercing, or if there is any evidence of infection (an odour or fluid from the piercing, for example) - Visit a dentist regularly to monitor the piercing and any potential damage to teeth and gums (chipping or bleeding) |