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NPR

The crisis of contaminated water in Flint, Mich., is making a public health message like this one harder to get across: In most communities, the tap water is perfectly safe. And it is much healthier than sugary drinks.

That’s a message that Dr. Patty Braun, a pediatrician and oral health specialist at Denver Health, spends a lot of time talking to her patients about.

CBS4
It may be hard to believe, but tooth decay is the number one chronic childhood illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cavities are five times more common in kids than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.

9News

It’s called a “silent epidemic” in the state of Colorado: poor dental health in kids. “It can impair a child’s ability to eat, to form words,” said Wyatt Hornsby with the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation. In Colorado, the public health numbers are staggering. Tooth decay affects about 40-percent of kindergartners and 55-percent of third graders.

Dimensions of Dental Hygiene
The recent launch of the Colorado Medical-Dental Integration Project (CO-MDI) is helping make affordable medical and dental care for the centennial state’s most vulnerable residents more accessible than ever before. Thanks to funding from the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, the state now has 16 medical organizations that are employing registered dental hygienists on their medical care teams.

The Denver Post
Nathan Martinez is an unusual 9-year-old boy. He actually likes dental care. So he showed no fear at an appointment this month. He calmly walked into a hygienist’s office wearing a red shirt that declared, “You just be yourself and I’ll be awesome,” and plopped onto her reclining chair with a smile.

CPR

At a downtown Denver clinic, a skinny 7-year-old with straight black hair named Marlene is getting a pair of fillings. Dr. Patty Braun, a pediatrician and oral health specialist at Denver Health, talks with Marlene about what she drinks, asking if she drinks tap water.

LA Junta Tribune

Valley-Wide Health Systems Inc. is now offering a variety of preventive dental health services to pediatric patients during regular medical visits at its La Junta Clinic.

Access to affordable dental care in Routt County has been limited in recent years, but local public health officials are hopeful availability will improve in the coming months. The Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association has hired a dental hygienist to serve low-income patients, including those on Medicaid, something that’s been generally unavailable in recent months.