BIG Announcements:
Convening Date Change, New Website, NCOHC Videos and More!
October 2017
REMINDER: NCOHC Conference Date Changed to 
Friday, January 19, 2018 
(Full-Day Event)
Paul J. Ciener Botanical Gardens in Kernersville, NC
(Registration information will be provided in a separate email)

In This Issue
NCOHC  
Partner Spotlight: 
Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!)
In Sanford, NC, second-year dental hygienist students at Central Carolina Community College hosted Parrish Ravelli, member of the NCOHC and staff at Youth Empowered Solutions, in September 2017.

Parrish's session focused on building the capacity of future dental hygienists to understand the role policies and systems plan in people's ability to access oral health care in NC. 

The hope is, as more providers enter the profession, at any level, there is a deeper understanding of opportunities that exist to help ensure all North Carolinians have equitable access to the care they need.
Want to be our next Partner Spotlight?
We want to share the great work you are doing in our new "Partner Spotlight" section of our newsletters!

Please share your organization's oral health advocacy efforts and any others relevant activities so we can share with the NCOHC network.

Click this link for our Partner Spotlight form.
Our New WEBSITE is Live!
Our new website offers all of the NCOHC-created resources and is a good way to stay informed as an Oral Health Advocate in North Carolina.

Visit us at  OralHealthNC.org
Brand New NCOHC  Videos!!!
We have been hard at work to provide you with multiple video resources to further your impact as an oral health advocate! These videos are located on  our new website
and we strongly encourage you to incorporate them into your education and outreach efforts as a visual way to engage others about the importance of oral health and its impact on North Carolinians.

The first three videos are based on the  FrameWorks Institute memo,  Unlocking the Door to New Thinking The last video highlights NCOHC's first Oral Health Day at the Legislature event (2017). Be on the lookout for Spanish language versions for each of our videos!

If you have questions or would like to uses these resources in your own work, we are happy to assist you. Please feel free to email us at:
An important part of overall health is oral health-having a healthy mouth, including teeth, gums, and tongue. Achieving good oral health can be thought of like going through a series of doors.


It Will Take All of Us 
(1:55 min)
Oral health involves a team of professionals that work across the community.


When it comes to oral health, we know we can reduce costs by stopping problems before they even start.


Join us as we continue to build the movement to achieve oral health equity for ALL!

2017 North Carolina Oral Health Day at the Legislature

Mary Otto, author of " Teeth", visits NC!

The North Carolina Oral Health Collaborative is grateful to Mary Otto for joining us for a breakfast filled with insight from her work across the country and engaging dialogue.  Attendees for this event included key stakeholders from around NC - representation from dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, grassroots organizations and advocacy groups provided diverse perspectives.



Zulayka Santiago, Director of NCOHC, kicked off the event with a casual interview, which was followed by an open-discussion. 



Ultimately, the attendees walked away with a better understanding of how to use powerful lessons discussed in Otto's book in their own work.
Disparities Continue...
(NC-DHHS, Oral Health Section, June 2017)
Oral health disparities continue to deeply impact children of color.  Hispanic, Pacific Islander and American Indian children have an average double amount of decayed, missing or filled teeth as compared to their white counterparts.

In NC, the percentage of kindergartners with
untreated dental decay, by race is:
  • White: 13%
  • Hispanic: 15%
  • Black: 18%
  • Native/American Indian: 24%
In NC, the percentage of kindergartners with
NO decayed, missing or filled teeth, by race is:
  • White: 69%
  • Black: 62%
  • Hispanic: 53%
  • Native/American Indian: 36%
In NC, the average number of decayed, missing or filled teeth in kindergartners, by race is:
  • White: 1.31 teeth
  • Black: 1.52 teeth
  • Hispanic: 2.24 teeth
  • Pacific Islander: 2.44 teeth
  • Native/American Indian: 3.24 teeth
Access the most recent (2015-2016) 
Kindergarten Oral Health Status Assessment Data; 
level summary grouped by region by clicking here.
Oral Health-Related Resources
Richard Kimble, Asheville, NC Youth Empowered Solutions youth staff, highlights the systemic factors that make accessing good oral health care so challenging and encourages policy-makers to use the Portrait of Oral Health as an aid to better understanding how barriers to oral health impact their communities.

Click here to view the letter.
Authors, R. Niederman, S. S. Huang, A. Trescher, & S. Listl, propose universal school-based comprehensive caries prevention to address misalignment of current payment system incentives. Their preliminary modeling suggests universal caries prevention could eliminate 80% of children's caries and cost less than one-fifth of current Medicaid children's oral health spending. Furthermore, they posit if implemented with bundled payments based on cycle of care and measurable outcomes, there would be an alignment of incentives, best evidence, care, and outcomes. Such a program would meet the Health People Oral Health goals for children, as well as health care's triple aim.

Read the full article here.
Donald Chi, University of Washington, begins with the tragic and preventable death of 12 year-old Deamonte Driver from an untreated cavity that lead to a brain infection. Reminding us that cavities are more prevalent that all cases of pediatric obesity, overweight, and asthma combined. Chi speaks on how cavities reflect broader social inequalities, coherent steps to improve oral health in poor communities, and how improved dental health low-income people are now threatened.

See the 2-page article by clicking this link.