Dental Public Health

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Dental public health system is composed of collaborative efforts of public and private sectors, as well as federal, state, and local governmental agencies. Public health organizations at all levels attempt to make the conditions in which nations oral health can be as good as possible. To legislate will of people, deputies provide the political and financial support for governments to play their role within the public health system. Government functions in a way, which allows federal government agency the resources to govern, balance justice and provide funds for each state. Then, each state organization has a share of authority and power in governing the state. System ultimately requires both state and federal government organizations to implement …show more content…

CDC’s Division of Oral Health (DOH) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) were chosen to represent government and state unit respectively. The main difference is the scope of services, which is either on national (CDC DOH) or statewide (IDPH) scale. The similarity related to dental public health in federal and state organizations is due to framework to provide their services based on by 10 essential public health services (ASTDD, 2013). In 2013 Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) revised 10 essential public health (PH) services to fit oral health needs and provide framework for divisions of federal and state agencies and their programs concerned with oral health. (ASTDD, 2013) Resembling, 10 essential PH services, revised points are founded on the same three core PH functions 1) Assessment to supervise population needs and health; 2) Policy development to promote better health; and 3) Assurance of activities to reduce access to care. (ASTDD, …show more content…

Under the first core PH function, surveillance system and assessment of oral health are listed as essential services to promote oral health in US. In 2001, CDC in collaboration with ASTDD developed National Oral Health Surveillance System (NOHSS) to monitor oral disease, oral health care delivery system, and the status of community water fluoridation to respond to health hazards in the community on both state and national level. (CDC, 2010) However, surveillance on national level wouldn’t be possible without help from state agency. As such, Illinois Department of Public Oral Health Division assesses water fluoridation by Illinois Oral Health Surveillance System (IOHSS), and later reports to federal agency. In contrast to NOHSS, IOHSS responsibility is to monitor Illinois-specific, population-based oral disease burden and trends, measure changes in oral health program capacity, and monitor and report community water fluoridation quality. IOHSS state surveillance system is modeled after federal NOHSS system and is funded by a cooperative agreement with the CDC. (IOHSS, 2007). Another CDC DOH role guided by second PH core function is policy development. Under this core function, essential PH services include policy implementation, plans to support state and mobilization of partnerships to act on oral health issues. CDC’s Oral

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