Healthy People Consortium Meeting
"Implementing Healthy People 2010"
November 11, 2000

Summary of Breakout Group Discussion Concerning:
Oral Health

1. What does implementing Healthy People 2010 mean to you?

• Who will do it and track it, and where will the resources come from? 
• Need a 3-tiered strategy at national, State, and local levels.
• Public-private partnerships.
• Need a written plan of action.
• Need a surveillance system to measure progress. 
• Need infrastructure to support it. 
• Address workforce issues; shortage of dentists. 
• Need to look at mid-level providers.
• Need to encourage/mentor more youth into the dental and dental hygiene professions (focus on minority workforce).
• Emphasize the biggest bang (strategies) for the buck.
• Eliminate disparities. 
• Need a public awareness campaign. 
• Educate the public, providers, and payers. 
• Need to target the dissemination of information to professions that represent minorities: NDA, HDA. 
• Address health literacy issues. 

2. How do you suggest we work with local community groups in implementing the Healthy People 2010 objectives? 

• Key stakeholders in the communities (and States) must be at the table; involved early in planning.
• Empower community.
• Integrate oral health into other key issues. 
• Need a champion. 
• Need to attend meetings and work with others outside our own discipline or health interest. 
• Provide technical assistance to community groups (network).

3. What are the challenges/barriers to meeting the Healthy People 2010 objectives? And how do you suggest we work to overcome them? 

• Must listen to communities and not tell them what to do. 
• Let them define the problem and the solutions.
• Disseminate latest scientific information and technology to professions.
• Manpower shortages. 
• Lack of fluoridated water in many communities/cities.
• Financial barriers; many people are without dental insurance. 
• Medicaid reimbursements are low.
• Lack of full-time dental director in 15 States.
• Lack of State health plans.
• Lack of resources to address needs. 
• Need better surveillance systems for data collection, analysis.

4. What can we do to support the elimination of health disparities among racial and ethnic population groups? 

• Need to understand the determinants of health.
• Need more research (health services, biomedical) to help understand issues.
• Involve nondental professionals; risk assessment, referrals, application of fluoride varnishes in preschool age population.
• Need to understand better how to change behaviors of population groups.
• Need to address health literacy. 

5. How do we measure progress of Healthy People 2010 in the future? And what is progress?

• Oral health section already has an objective (21-16) to do that. 
• Need to be able to measure objectives by State and possibly by community and do so on a frequent basis. 
• Need to utilize school nurses and other nondental professionals to collect oral health information.
• Need surveillance tools that are user friendly. 
• Allow communities to pick 1-2 objectives. 
• Include qualitative measurements. 
• Piggyback onto other health indicators to assess progress (e.g., diabetes).
• Use/collect YRBS data by all States annually. 
• Encourage States and communities to develop plans to address Healthy People 2010 objectives.
• Use Healthy People 2010 tracking document so will have comparable measures and indicators. 

6. How can we work more effectively with the media in implementing the Healthy People 2010 objectives? 

• Have a consistent message so media are not confused.
• Work with professional media experts to help us reframe the oral health messages. 
• Develop a sample press kit to give to media; include in new Oral Health Toolkit. 
• Provide training sessions for health professionals in dealing with the media (see what has been done by AAPD, ADA, ADHA, use of Speaker Bureaus).

7. How could we improve this session? 

• Package/promote session to nondental professionals.
• Add interdisciplinary questions to forms/questionnaires so encourage nondental participation in issues. 
• Decrease registration fee.

Participant List

Maria Teresa Canto
NIDCR
maria.canto@nih.gov

Alice M. Horowitz
NIDCR
alice.horowitz@nih.gov

Ellen Ceppetelli
RN Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
ellen.ceppetelli@hitchcock.org 

Kim LaPietra
BCBSNJ -HHDS
k_lapietra@horitozn.bcbsnj.com

Diane Brunson
ASTDD
diane.brunson@state.co.us

Kathy L. Hayes
Office of Rural Health Policy
khayes@hrsa.gov

Jim Crall
AAPD
jjc233@columbia.edu

Ron Romero
New Mexico Department of Health
ronr@doh.state.nm.us

Pat Lawless
NEPA AHEC
plawless@kstone.edu

Wendy Chan
Yale Griffin Prevention Research Center
wendy.chen@yalegriffinprc.org

Jan Starr
ADHA
jans@adha.net

Larry Hill
American Association of Communication
larry.hill@rec.org

Aljernon Bolden
National Dental Association 
bolden@bu.edu 

Stuart Lockwood
CDC- Division of Oral Health

Candace Jones
IHS
jonesc@hqe.ihs.gov 

Back to Consortium 2000 Table of Contents