The DentaQuest Foundation is launching a new initiative, The Innovation Fund for Oral Health – Supporting Inventive Strategies to Promote Systems Change in Oral Health. Geared towards funding nonprofit organizations, its goal is to foster inventive ideas that lead to systems change that reduces and eliminates barriers to accessing oral health care services and promotes community-based prevention strategies. An informational webinar will be held on January 9, 2013, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET.

The Kansas Health Foundation has launched a new web site, FluorideFor.Us, as part of a campaign to educate Kansans about the health benefits of community water fluoridation. The campaign seeks to answer basic questions consumers have about fluoridation and promote water fluoridation as an effective oral health solution. The site supports numerous news articles, editorials, television and radio interviews, and ads on city buses, billboards, and the radio promoting community water fluoridation.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has released a new study, A Review of the Global Literature on Dental Therapists: In the Context of the Movement to Add Dental Therapists to the Oral Health Workforce in the United States, reviewing more than 1,100 reports regarding dental therapists and their work in 54 different countries. The most extensive literature review conducted on the work and clinical outcomes of dental therapists worldwide, the study indicates that dental therapists offer safe and effective dental care to children and that the public values their role. The report also documents evidence that dental therapists can not only effectively expand access to dental care, especially for children, but also provide care that is technically competent, safe, and effective.

“There is no question that dental therapists provide care for children that is high quality and safe. None of the 1,100 documents reviewed found any evidence of compromises to children’s safety or quality of care,” said David Nash, DMD, MS, EdD, author of the study. “Given these findings, the profession of dentistry should support adding dental therapists to the oral health care team.”

According to a new report released by the Pew Center on the States, more and more Americans are seeking dental treatment and care in hospital emergency rooms (ER). The report, A Costly Dental Destination: Hospital Care Means States Pay Dearly, highlights hospital data on the frequency and cost of dental-related ER visits from 24 states and offers several policy solutions. In all, Pew found 830,590 ER visits in 2009 that were primarily the result of preventable dental conditions: a 16 percent increase from 2006. The report conc;udes that the root cause for the increase, especially for Medicaid populations, is a lack of access to regular preventive dental care.

“The fact that so many Americans go to hospitals for dental care shows the delivery system is failing,” said Shelly Gehshan, director of the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign. “The care provided in an ER is much more expensive, and it generally doesn’t solve dental problems. Most hospital ERs are not staffed with dentists, and the medical personnel who work there are not trained to treat the underlying problems of patients with untreated dental issues. The bad news is that states are paying a hefty price at a time when they can least afford it. The good news is they can make modest investments now that will improve access to care and save them money down the road.”