University of Kentucky's first year dental students are a part of the #KySmileTeam. The holiday season brings about many reasons for families to smile, from holiday light displays to opening gifts. Oral health and the holidays are even celebrated in the song “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.” But many Kentuckians don’t have perfect smiles this holiday season. You are in the unique position to influence health outcomes by [...]

Children’s oral health is a pressing issue in Kentucky. Oral health care is integral to overall health and wellness and affects a child’s success in learning and job prospects later in life. Understanding how Kentucky’s children, specifically those on Medicaid, fare in their oral health can help build the case for increased access to oral health care services and education. In partnership with George Washington University, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published the [...]

 Kynect, Kentucky’s health benefit exchange, began its second annual open enrollment period on November 15 and will run through February 15, 2015. Governor Steve Beshear’s communications office reports that the first day of enrollment showed strong interest from Kentuckians as they began shopping for health coverage. Kentucky has remained a national leader in enrollment in health care coverage through kynect. In 2014, Kentucky had the second-highest reduction of uninsured people in the country, falling from [...]

Tooth decay continues to rank as one of the most prevalent chronic childhood diseases, especially in the state of Kentucky.  The Institute for Rural Health at Western Kentucky University completed a cross-sectional study in 2013, focusing on two main objectives in the bluegrass state: to assess socio-demographic differences between children affected and unaffected by decay, and to investigate the factors associated with the lack of treatment of this chronic condition. The Institute for Rural Health used mobile [...]

The Kentucky Oral Health Coalition (KOHC) is proud to announce a new opportunity for communities interested in improving oral health among children and families. The Kentucky Oral Health Coalition is partnering with the UCLA Health Care Institute (HCI) and the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood to offer Community Early Childhood Councils (CECC) mini-grants up to $1,000 to conduct oral health trainings to parents in their communities using an researched curriculum and protocol. The UCLA Health [...]

With Halloween right around the corner, kids are picking out their favorite costumes, porches are decorated with jack-o-lanterns, and grocery stores are lined with sweet treats to celebrate. But, let’s not forget about the damage too much candy can have on our teeth. Halloween presents a great opportunity to remind your family about the importance of keeping up good oral hygiene, especially to prevent cavities. Walgreens has five tips to keep good oral health during this Halloween [...]

This post originally appeared as a Kentucky Youth Advocates blog post written by Health Policy Director, Stephen Lin. You can view it online here. Data transparency is one of the current hot topics in Kentucky health, and while this sounds like an abstract or even confusing term, data transparency actually means laying out the facts so that everyone can understand them. It refers to the openness of health departments, service providers, managed care organizations, and others [...]

This post originally appeared as an Op-Ed in The Courier Journal and Kentucky Youth Advocates Blog. You can view it online here.  Written by Kentucky Youth Advocates, Executive Director Dr. Terry Brooks As the November election nears, effective, bipartisan action in Congress can sometimes feel like a lofty and unattainable ideal. Political ads remind us several times a day of the divide amongst political parties. Yet, we have a strong example of a bipartisan policy that [...]

According to the Governor’s Ky Health Now Initiative, Kentucky ranks 45th in the percentage of children with untreated dental decay (34.6%). The Pew Center on States gave Kentucky a “C” grade in providing oral health care to children in their latest report. Yet, it’s difficult to truly know where Kentucky stands on children’s oral health since the state has not systematically collected data on children’s oral health in over a decade. In 2008, Kentucky passed a [...]

The Kentucky Oral Health Coalition was recently featured in the July/August 2014 issue of Kentucky Dental Association’s (KDA) magazine, KDA Today.  The article, written by KOHC’s own Lacey McNary, focused on the increasing awareness of Kentucky’s oral health needs and the growing energy of stakeholders across the Commonwealth. Governor Steve Beshear’s KyHealthNow goals for improving oral health for Kentuckians and the priorities of KDA and KOHC align, specifically improving oral health awareness, expanding school based oral health [...]