Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
State Promotion of Strategies to Advance Oral Health - The Missouri Office of Dental Health will address the burden of oral disease among children and individuals with Type 2 diabetes. This project prioritizes strategies for infection prevention control, secondary data analysis to inform the future integration of medical and dental services for individuals with Type 2 diabetes, evidence-based preventive dental services (EBPDS), sustainability, and evaluation. The purpose of the project, Enhancing Oral Health and Diabetes Management: A Comprehensive Community-Based Approach for Missourians, is to address the burden of oral disease, such as untreated tooth decay among populations of focus with evidence-based interventions and practices using secondary data to inform strategies, with an emphasis on school-aged children and individuals with Type 2 diabetes. Missouri’s Office of Dental Health will engage local and state partners, implement best practices, provide education and awareness, leverage local and state relationships and resources, and perform ongoing monitoring and quality improvement. Long-standing stakeholders include the Missouri Dental Association, Missouri Area Health Education Center, Missouri Primary Care Association, Missouri Coalition for Oral Health, and MO HealthNet. New stakeholders and partners include but are not limited to Kansas City University, Score One for Health, Raising St. Louis, Give Kids A Smile, Smiles for Vets for diabetes screening and IPC educational visits. Jamaa Birth Village provides culturally congruent traditional midwifery care for St. Louis area families. The Uzazi clinic is an Afrocentric birth village in Kansas City who will partner with ODH to deliver education on gestational diabetes and the relationship to oral health. The education will also be delivered to three local public health agencies who are working with ODH in “warm hand off” for pregnant moms to undertake dental care. The target population for medical-dental integration includes unserved and underserved populations in need of primary care and oral health services and who are primarily served through FQHCs. For the EBPDS school sealants expansion, the target population is students in grades 2-6, in schools with more than 50% free and reduced lunch program participation. Individuals served by non-fluoridated community water systems will be the target population for community water fluoridation.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).