(Renée C. Lee/Houston Chronicle)
Every time Dr. Martee Engel treats a young patient whose teeth have brown or white chalky spots, she’s reminded of an acute problem affecting children – particularly poor children.
Engel sees more than her share of early childhood tooth decay as dental director at Denver Harbor Clinic in northeast Houston. The clinic treats mostly poor children who are twice as likely as more affluent children to have untreated tooth decay, studies show.
While overall oral health care for adults and children has improved, tooth decay continues to be the most common chronic disease among children. It can have serious social and health consequences when untreated and, in rare cases, can be fatal.
“The children with the highest need are the poor,” said Engel, a pediatric dentist for 20 years. “Their tooth decay occurs more rapidly and is more pervasive.”
A surgeon general report in 2000 called the problem a “silent epidemic.” It estimated that children lose more than 51 million school hours because of toothaches. Children whose families are below the federal poverty line suffer 12 times more restricted activity and loss of school hours than other children, the report said. (More at Houston Chronicle)
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- Millennium Development Goal on Safe Drinking Water Reaches Target Early (The Guardian, UK)
OPINIONS ON THE NEWS:
- Editorial: Making the Grade, Failing the Test (Houston Chronicle)
Although HISD teachers awarded nearly 13,000 A’s and B’s in their AP classes last year, 63 percent of those students failed to earn college credit when they took the exam. Is HISD rushing AP exams too fast? - Editorial: The Wrong Approach to Discipline (New York Times)
Distressing new federal data on the disciplinary treatment of black students adds urgency to investigations into the treatment of minority children in a dozen school districts around the country