Missouri Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Report – Winter 2018

The state of Missouri is starting to see some oral health issues come up in the elections and within the legislature these past few months. Nearly two thirds of voters in Houston, Missouri (population 2000) decided to stop adding fluoride to the city’s water during the Mid-term elections. This makes it the 75^th US city to do so. Despite the valiant efforts of several Missouri Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (MoAPD) members, the proposal to remove fluoride from the water passed, and the fear now is that antifluoridationists will use this as a referendum to try getting this on the ballots of other municipalities. 

A 2012 study published by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services showed that millions of dollars were being wasted in emergency departments around the state on non-traumatic dental conditions. Missouri legislators were impressed with the story the data told about the inefficiencies of the Missouri Medicaid system, and over the course of the 2014 session the legislature included funding for reinstatement of Medicaid adult dental benefits in the budget. Since implementation in May of 2016, data has become available that shows the impact of this significant policy substantially reducing the number of claims submitted for non-traumatic dental conditions.

One of those legislators is now the state Medicaid director, and has expressed that the Medicaid system needs more revamping. The Missouri Dental Association (MDA) will be called upon to give input on the restructuring of the Medicaid system in Missouri. The MDA Board passed a resolution to create and Association an ad hoc committee to evaluate Missouri’s Medicaid program and deliberate about ideas to develop a new system or better the current on for the dental profession. One of the Ad Hoc members will be a MoAPD officer to make sure that the children in the state are represented.

Other issues the state will be working on are teledentistry and increasing the number of dental sealants placed on kids.

The MoAPD got away from having their annual meeting in January where there was always the threat of inclement weather, and instead hosted a pediatric pulmonologist speaking on pediatric sleep issues and their dental ramifications this past September. The business meeting held immediately after featured the acceptance and voting of next year’s officers. Dr. Aaron Bumann volunteered to be our new Public Policy Advocate, and the MDA Board and the MoAPD each voted to split the travel costs Aaron will incur to travel to the Public Policy Advocacy meeting each year.

We also announced that Dr. Rachael Gore, a 2nd year dental student at the University of Missouri- Kansas City School of Dentistry was our 2018 dental student scholarship recipient. She received a $1000 check for participating in her first dental mission to a foreign country. 

The next MoAPD annual meeting will be held on Saturday September 21, 2019 and will feature a pediatric gastroenterologist who will be speaking on GERD and nutritional issues. Our website moapd.org can be accessed for more information, and I’m hopeful that the new upgrade of the website will be up and running in the next few months. 

Submitted by Dr. Craig S. Hollander, Secretary/Treasurer, MoAPD.

Legislation information was gathered by the Missouri Coalition of Oral Health.