Pennsylvania Department of Health Oral Health Program's Strategies to Advance Oral Health - Project Title: Promoting Strategies to Advance Oral Health in Pennsylvania Applicant Organization Name: The Pennsylvania Department of Health, Oral Health Program Amount Requested: Federal: $380,800 The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH), Oral Health Program (OHP) is submitting a grant application entitled “Promoting Strategies to Advance Oral Health in Pennsylvania (Project)” in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Number CDC-RFA-DP-24-0048, entitled State Promotion of Strategies to Advance Oral Health. The new Project will build upon the lessons learned by the OHP over the last five years of implementing the CDC cooperative agreement to implement evidence-based strategies to improve oral health outcomes. The OHP was successful in preventing community water systems from ceasing fluoridation and increasing access to evidence-based preventive dental services for children in the form of school-based dental sealant programs that offered fluoride varnish. The OHP has focused on improving the oral health surveillance system by conducting the first Pennsylvania Basic Screening Survey (BSS) and compiling other data sources, enabling the OHP to track oral health indicators and share data with stakeholders to guide decision making. These experiences have prepared the OHP to meet the challenges of the new cooperative agreement. Using similar and new strategies, the OHP will mobilize new and current partners to engage in activities to increase: • access to optimally fluoridated water and receipt of evidence-based preventive dental services in schools and in the medical office, • adherence to infection prevention and control recommendations, • access to data to build evidence for public health practice, and access to care for untreated decay, and • foundational information supporting integrated medical and dental services for adults with Type 2 diabetes. During the Project, the OHP will conduct all activities with a health equity lens but will choose different populations of focus using relevant state and community-level data to identify communities with significant oral health disparities. The OHP will select culturally appropriate interventions for implementation and solicit feedback through community engagement efforts to ensure that the members of the community who are receiving services have a voice in the type and quality of interventions used.
