Welcome!
Thank you to colleagues and friends (happily, many of you are both) for your heartening messages of support as I officially launched Chazin Consulting last month. January was a whirlwind of intriguing opportunities, new projects, and exciting, meaningful work already underway. Adding to the category of “new,” I am sharing the inaugural edition of this monthly (for now!) newsletter, in which I plan to highlight resources to help you make a difference in the public health, policy, and oral health arenas, plus examples of great work underway in this space.
National Children’s Dental Health Month
This month is an opportune time to begin, as February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. Did you know…?
- While all children served by Medicaid and CHIP have coverage for comprehensive dental care, fewer than half receive a preventive dental service each year, and service utilization is still below pre-pandemic rates. Correspondingly, children from low-income families have significantly higher rates of untreated dental disease.
- Children with poor oral health often miss more school and receive lower grades than children who don’t
- Children from racially and ethnically minoritized groups are significantly more likely to have cavities in their primary or permanent teeth than white children.
- Dental care is the most frequently cited unmet health need for children with special health care needs.
Here are some resources to help you shine the spotlight on this health care crisis and strategies we can undertake collectively to address it:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Oral Health Data Website, which contains data for select indicators from the National Oral Health Surveillance System
- The Rural Health Information Hub’s Rural Early Childhood Health Promotion Toolkit
- This oral health social media kit from the West Virginia Oral Health Coalition
- Community Catalyst’s Oral Health Policy Equity Tool, which can support your advocacy work to create a more equitable dental care delivery system
- Posters, flyers, and postcards from the American Dental Association
- What Should Kids Drink? from the PA Coalition for Oral Health
Reflections on Month #1 of My New Gig
As I wrapped up the first month of official entrepreneurship, I reflected on some immediate and poignant learnings, and the many things (and people) for which I am grateful. If you would like to read more, I invite you to visit my very first blog under the Chazin Consulting banner: Reflections on Month #1 of My New Gig. Another part of my journey has been exploring the use of social media. Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, where I promise not to overwhelm you with meaningless chatter.