Kentucky law champions oral health for public school students

Louisville, Ky.鈥擳he Kentucky Dental Association reports enactment of “a very special bill” requiring children to have a dental examination before entering school. Nine other states and the District of Columbia require or grant authority to require such examinations, according to the ADA Department of State Government Affairs.

The Kentucky legislature passed House Bill 186 on the final day of the 2008 session, and Gov. Steve Beshear signed into law “an act relating to student dental health certificates.” The law requires a dental examination for admittance to a public school, public preschool, or Head Start program to begin with the 2010-2011 school year.

“A primary goal of the bill is to establish a ‘dental home’ for continued dental care for thousands of Kentucky children entering school, instead of simply continuing what many times ends up to be crisis care, and also to break the continuing cycle of poor oral health, which now places Kentucky as the worst state in the union in their effort to address this epidemic,” Dr. John A. Thompson, editor for KDA publications, told the ADA News.

The ADA Department of State Government Affairs cites dental examination provisions in effect or scheduled to take effect in California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. An Iowa statute effective July 1, 2008, provides that elementary and high school students must provide evidence of having received a dental screening. For elementary students, screening must take place no earlier than three years but prior to six years of age, at a minimum. There are variances in language and requirements among the states.