In advance of Children’s Dental Health Month in February, we will discuss the latest research on oral health and how it may impact policy in the states.
Shelly Gehshan, director of children’s dental policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts, also will provide perspective on oral health programs that are making a difference and the issues that may provide barriers to improving dental health.
Stories include how a program in North Carolina has improved children’s oral health by utilizing doctors to help apply fluoride varnish. Gehshan also will discuss the benefits of dental sealant programs and some of the barriers at the state level that prevent these programs from reaching more children.
Our webcast will be hosted by Mary Otto, AHCJ’s Oral Health core topic leader.
Date & time:
2 p.m. ET, Jan. 27
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NOTE: This is exclusively for AHCJ members; will need your username and password. If you don’t have that, please email info@healthjournalism.org. A link to the webcast will appear on this page about 15 minutes before it begins.
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Shelly Gehshan (@SGehshan) directs children’s dental policy at Pew, supervising work with states to expand access to prevention and treatment for children through policy changes in Medicaid, sealant programs, community water fluoridation and the dental workforce. She speaks frequently about an expanded dental workforce and the benefits of community water fluoridation. She helped legislators in Minnesota draft the nation’s first state law licensing dental therapists. She served on the Institute of Medicine panel that released a major report in 2011 on the dental access problem. Gehshan spent nearly 20 years working for state policy makers on a range of issues affecting low-income women and children.
Shelly Gehshan
Mary Otto