Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.

Judges’ comments: This piece highlights an important problem, and in an engaging and effective way outlines the causes and potential solutions. It also draws parallels with larger problems in the United States – poor diet, a lack of access to care, and poor education about the need for healthy diets and better hygiene. It's an under-reported problem and yet the team showed a great deal of insight, and, moreover, accurately reported it.

List date(s) this work was published or aired.

Aug. 18, 2011 through Oct. 2011
See this story online.

Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.

Alameda County's children have some of the worst teeth in the nation – a hidden problem that the Surgeon General calls the "silent epidemic." It was documented in 2006, when a dental health assessment outlined the crisis in a study. In June 2011, I discovered the study while searching online. I had been looking for historical health research papers about Alameda County – where our TV station is located. After reading the 2006 report, my intention was to produce a story to update the progress that had been made over the last five years. A conversation with the county dental health administrator, however, revealed that the problem had actually gotten worse – "epidemic" in proportion – as he says on camera.

My three-pronged series attempts to answer three questions key to understanding the scale of the epidemic:

1. How bad is the problem?
2. What organic factors contributed to the cause and transmission of children's dental disease over the years?
3. What is the community doing about the crisis in the wake of heavy budget cuts in the state's healthcare programs?

Many families in Alameda County don't have access to dental care because of social and cultural challenges: lack of money, lack of health insurance, and language/cultural barriers. Many affected families politely refused our request for an on-camera interview, so I attempt to tell the story of their crisis through the people who are helping them – dentists, health advocates, a school principal, and the county dental health administrator. The series helped to ignite action.

In Nov. 2011, six months after I began my inquiries, the Alameda County dental health administrator released a new 28-page dental health strategic plan for the county. It calls for stepped up community action over the next five years (2012-2017) and provides a guideline for achieving measurable results. On Jan. 26, 2012, California Senate Bill 694 – a bill to improve dental health "especially to the most vulnerable children" –  was passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support by the state Senate.

Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?

My sources were many and varied. Documents I used include the 2006 dental health assessment study of Alameda County children. I also referred to other studies and research papers of dental health problems in other counties in an attempt to compare Alameda County to state and national data. I looked for any previous articles about children's dental disease and used various online resources including medical, academic, and government websites. There was no need for FOI requests. After I told them that I had discovered the study online, the health department of Alameda County and its administrators were very forthcoming and made themselves accessible to answer my questions.

Explain types of human sources used.

The human sources I contacted for this story include patents of children affected by the epidemic, dentists who treated them, community healthcare workers, a middle school principal, and the county's dental health administrator. In addition, there were many people I consulted as background sources. These included many other dentists, dental disease researchers, and college professors.

Results (if any).

The series helped to ignite action. In Nov. 2011, six months after I began my inquiries, Alameda County released a new 28-page dental health strategic plan for the county. It called for stepped up community action over the next five years (2012-2017) and provided a guideline for achieving measurable results. On Jan. 26, 2012, California Senate Bill 694 – a bill to improve dental health "especially to the most vulnerable children" – was passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support by the state Senate.

Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.

Since leaving the station in Aug. 2011, I have remained in touch with Dr. Jared Fine, the county dental health administrator. He is the author of the new strategic health plan for Alameda County. The plan was released in Nov. 2011 two months later than their intended Sept. 2011 target date that I mentioned in the story. More recently, Dr. Fine also told me that state Senate Bill 694 – which supports action to improve the dental health of California's most vulnerable children – had been passed with overwhelming bipartisan support on Jan. 26, 2012.

Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.

Don't underestimate the value of old public health studies. Dig for them and use them to compare previous findings with public health circumstances today. Questions to keep in mind while reading study archives: Has the situation improved? If so, what steps were taken to achieve the result? If things have gotten worse, find out what what factors are responsible for the negative changes. Archived research papers of the past can be invaluable resources for enterprising health stories for the future.