Running head: ORAL HEALTH

Parental Guidance in Establishing Oral Health

When a person develops heart disease one assumes it is from a poor diet or
genetics; when a person develops osteoporosis one assumes they need more calcium or
weight-bearing activity; when a person develops diabetes one assumes they need to lose
weight or decrease their sugar intake-one thing many people fail to realize is that all of
these diseases can start from poor oral health. You may think that the worst consequence
of poor dental health would be lost teeth and painful times in the dentist's chair. But some
studies have linked common oral problems to illnesses, including heart disease, stroke,
diabetes, premature birth, osteoporosis, and even Alzheimer's disease (Sine, 2010, ). Oral
health is extremely important and is no small issue. In fact, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)(2011), Tooth decay affects more than one-fourth of
U.S. children aged 2-5 years and half of those aged 12-15 years. One-fourth of U.S. adults
aged 65 or older have lost all of their teeth. Due to these statistics, many health promotion
programs have been initiated and funded in recent years in order to achieve the goals of
Healthy People 2020 and they prompted me to develop my health promotion tool on the
subject matter.
The population I aimed to impact while developing this tool is parents of schoolaged children. More specifically, I wanted to zero in on families with a lower socioeconomic
status. Simply said, Income is a powerful variable that explains health status (Pender,
Murdaugh, & Parsons, 2011, p. 287). While this tool is impactful in parents who have the
finances to afford dental care, it is even more impactful in those that do not. The correlation
between poverty and poor oral health is staggering. Access to dental care has been widely

ORAL HEALTH

studied and generally found to be closely related to socioeconomic disparities (SganCohen & Mann, 2007, p. 1441). Lack of insurance is often a stated reason why families and
individuals in poverty struggle with poor oral health. According to Meyerhoefer, Zuvekas,
and Manski (2014):
Among the factors determining access, limited dental insurance coverage and high
out-of-pocket costs are commonly cited reasons for why the use of dental care is not
greater among Americans of all ages. Although two-thirds of people with private
health insurance have dental coverage, this coverage is often limited. As a
consequence, Americans pay almost half of the total cost of dental services out-ofpocket. (p. 14)
Despite its importance in overall health, oral health has taken a back seat in this country
for years. According to the CDC (2011), About half of all children and two-thirds of
adolescents aged 12-19 years from lower-income families have had decay. However, these
statistics are starting to turn around.
The time is now for this tool, while there is so much emphasis and funding for the
promotion of oral health. Oral Health has a major place among the goals of Health People
2020; the importance has been recognized. For this reason, the CDC is providing funding to
21 states between the years 2013 to 2017 in the amount of nearly $30 million to beef up
state-based oral health programs (CDC, 2011). Michigan is fortunate enough to be on this
list. In my pamphlet I highlighted some of these state-based programs such as the Michigan
Department of Community Health SEAL! Michigan Program that offers dental sealants to

ORAL HEALTH

school-aged children free of cost to parents (Michigan Department of Community Health,

2014).
The inspiration behind creating this pamphlet was to design something that was
easy to read and drew parents attention. It contains a lot of pertinent information in
simple words and sentences that allow easy readability among all types of knowledge
backgrounds. There is not a ton of complex words and terms in long, lengthy documents
that would discourage many parents from even starting to read it. The colors and graphics
catch parents and childrens attention, encouraging them to pick one up. I think that a
brochure is compact enough that parents will be more willing to pick it up and take it home
to read. I would plan to distribute these pamphlets in public health offices and public
schools. However, I would concentrate my efforts more in the public school realm.
Individuals in public health offices have already gotten the message about good oral health;
the pamphlet would just reiterate what they have already learned. The goal of distribution
would be to reach parents whose children do not have or have never had access to dental
care.
The theory or model that this health promotion tool utilizes the most is the health
belief model (HBM). The health belief model describes, why some people who are free of
illness will take actions to prevent illness, whereas others fail to do so (Pender et. al., 2011,
p. 38). It illustrates that people will take action if two conditions are present; a perceived
threat to personal health and the benefits of taking action to protect health outweigh the
barriers (Pender et. al., 2011, p. 38). The pamphlet highlights all the threats to ones health
by emphasizing all the illnesses that can develop as a result of poor oral health. It also

ORAL HEALTH

decreases all the barriers to action by providing readers with the easy, necessary tools and
information to make a change.

ORAL HEALTH
References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Oral Health: Preventing Cavities,
Gum Disease, Tooth Loss, and Oral Cancers At A Glance 2011. Retrieved from
www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/doh.htm
Meyerhoefer, C. D., Zuvekas, S. H., & Manski, R. (2014). The Demand for Preventative and
Restorative Dental Services. Health Economics, 23, p. 14-32. doi: 10.1002/hec.2899

Michigan Department of Community Health. (2014). Seal! Michigan Program. Retrieved

from www.michigan.gov/oralhealth
Pender, N. J., Murdaugh, C., L., & Parsons, M.A. (2011). Health Promotion in Nursing Practice.
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Sgan-Cohen, H. D., & Mann, J. (2007). Health, oral health and poverty. The Journal of the
American Dental Association, 138(11), 1437-1442. doi:
10.14219/jada.archive.2007.0077
Sine, R. (2010). What Your Dental Health Says About You: Common Oral Problems Have
Been Linked to Heart Disease, Diabetes, Premature Birth, and More. Retrieved from
http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/features/what-your-dental-health-saysabout-you

Health Promotion Tool Rubric

Health Promotion Tool

Points possible

Points earned

ORAL HEALTH
Tool:

26, bonus for a really

excellent job!

50

50

Visually pleasing design

Information relevant to
population
Health promotion
information
appropriate/accurate
Well-organized
structure

Paper:

25

Population is identified,
explained, relevant
health statistics
provided
Health promotion issue
is identified, relevance
to population
established, relevant
statistics provided
Tool design and
implementation
explained
Health promotion
theory support of tool
1-2 peer reviewed
sources

Grammar, spelling, APA,

style: Up to 15 points may be
deducted for errors.

76/75, what an excellent job all around Lindsay! You have a strong academic writing style
and tone, really grad-school level writing in my opinion (I hope you are considering grad
school!)