The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced new nutrition standards that limit added sugars and sodium in children’s school meals. The change will gradually phase in added sugar limits for the school lunch and breakfast program and update total sugar limits for breakfast cereals and yogurt. Program operators are not required to make any changes to their menus as a result of this rulemaking until school year 2025-26 at the earliest. As diet directly affects oral health, limiting added sugars can improve the oral health of children and youth.

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We hope you will check out our video recap of the 2023 PA Oral Health Summit, whether you were able to attend or not. The video is now available on our YouTube channel and can be shared with others!

Click here to see the video.

From CBS News

Pediatrician Patricia Braun and her team saw roughly 100 children at a community health clinic on a recent Monday. They gave flu shots and treatments for illnesses like ear infections. But Braun also did something most primary care doctors don’t. She peered inside mouths searching for cavities or she brushed fluoride varnish on their teeth.

“We’re seeing more oral disease than the general population. There is a bigger need,” Braun said of the patients she treats at Bernard F. Gipson Eastside Family Health Center, which is part of Denver Health, the largest safety-net hospital in Colorado, serving low-income, uninsured, and underinsured residents.

Braun is part of a trend across the United States to integrate oral health into medical checkups for children, pregnant women, and others who cannot afford or do not have easy access to dentists. With federal and private funding, these programs have expanded in the past 10 years, but they face socioeconomic barriers, workforce shortages, and the challenge of dealing with the needs of new immigrants.

With a five-year, $6 million federal grant, Braun and her colleagues have helped train 250 primary care providers in oral health in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona. Similar projects are wrapping up in Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, and New York, funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Beyond assessment, education, and preventive care, primary care providers refer patients to on- or off-site dentists, or work with embedded dental hygienists as part of their practice.

Read more.

PCOH staff have been working on a number of print projects this spring that we hope will be helpful to you in your own advocacy and work.

• Medicaid Provider Brochure: This tri-fold flyer helps explain the many reasons that dentists and PHDHPs should participate in Medicaid and provides information on recent updates to the program.
• Medicaid Patient Brochure: Many adults enrolled in Medicaid don’t even know they have a dental benefit. This flyer helps explain some of the dental benefits offered and shares links to additional resources.
• Finding Dental Care: This flyer is available in English and Spanish and lists high-level resources in PA to help everyone find care.

Thank you to CareQuest Institute for Oral Health for helping to fund this work. These materials are all able to be printed and shipped, or you can use the PDF file to share electronically or print yourself. Email info@paoralhealth.org to request printed materials.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2025 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters final rule, designed to enhance accessibility and reliability within the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces. In Pennsylvania, we use Pennie (pennie.com).

One significant aspect of the new policies is the expansion of access to health care services, particularly the inclusion of adult routine dental care as a state option. Effective January 1, 2027, states can include adult routine dental services as an essential health benefit (EHB) within their plans offered through the marketplaces. However, states can begin the EHB benchmark application process on January 1, 2025.

See the final rule here (pages 40-43).

Health literacy is important for everyone because we all need to be able to find, understand, and use health information and services. The new handout, A Way with Words: Tips for Writing Easy-to-Understand Oral Health Materials, provides ideas about words to use and to not use, tone, voice (active vs. passive), and layout. Effectively using headings and lists is also discussed, along with the best way to write sentences and paragraphs to make the text simple and clear. How to incorporate technical words, when necessary, is explained. The handout was produced by the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC).

Click here to view the resource.

PCOH and the Pennsylvania Dental Hygienists’ Association have developed an informational flyer to assist dental providers and school districts understand the changes made to school dental screenings with the passage of Act 55 of 2023 in December. This resource recognizes the language change between “examinations” and “screenings” as well as the different roles between Certified School Dental Hygienists (CSDH) and Public Health Dental Hygiene Practitioners (PHDHP) in fulfilling a school’s dental health program.

PCOH is excited to announce a new partnership with Certified School Nurses and the PA Association of School Nurses and Practitioners (PASNAP). This partnership will help to educate students, families, and school professionals about the importance of oral health, including the role of community water fluoridation. By collaborating with these dedicated professionals, we will be able to provide communities with knowledge and resources to support optimal oral health for all.

To learn more about PASNAP, click here.

This handout series offers tips on what dentists, dental hygienists, and medical professionals can do to improve the oral health needs of children and pregnant women and people enrolled in Head Start programs. It highlights the importance of oral health for school readiness and describes the oral health services offered by Head Start programs.

• How Dental Hygienists Can Improve Oral Health for Head Start Participants
• How Dentists Can Improve Oral Health for Head Start Participants
• How Medical Providers Can Help Improve Oral Health for Head Start Participants

The CareQuest Institute for Oral Health has released Teledentistry Regulation and Policy Guidance: A Toolkit to Promote Access and Quality Care Through Teledentistry. This document identifies primary considerations for regulators and policymakers regarding teledentistry and includes key recommendations. Model teledentistry rules within the toolkit can form a basis for discussions on how to improve the regulatory climate for teledentistry moving forward.

In Pennsylvania, there is legislation pending in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee (HB1585) that would direct our State Board of Dentistry to develop guidelines for Pennsylvania.