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Street roots
April 26, 2013
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Community water fluoridation - the social justice issue of our time
one of those decayed teeth — a
tremendous burden for all people but
particularly lower-income and homeless
wice a month the Medical Teams
youth and families.
International mobile dental van
Just this year Outside In opened a school-
comes to Outside In to treat
homeless youths and other patients within based health center at Milwaukie High
School. I already knew the dental health
our homeless youth services. -
crisis was bad but the biggest eye-opener for
Even though the van has the ability to do
me was seeing how many children, from
cleanings and preventive care, they mostly
that beautiful school in a nice suburban
do extractions and emergency care for our
community of Portland, also have bad teeth.
clients. For every homeless youth and low-
Our dental health crisis isn’t just affecting
income adult that gets an appointment,
Portland’s low-income communities, people
there are five who do not because the need
are suffering across the board.
is so great. Slots are so limited that we
Our dental crisis is also telling when we
prioritize by intensity of pain and level of
compare Portland to other major cities in
illness. It concerns me how many people I
see in dental pain, especially when all dental the Pacific Northwest. For example, we
know that Portland kids have 40 percent
disease and decay is preventable.
more decay as compared to kids in Seattle,
When I first started working in homeless
which is fluoridated. The solution is a
medicine, a mentor of mine who worked
combination of education, better access to
with older homeless people told me that he
dental care, and fluoridated water. For a
could tell a lot about the general health of a
crisis of this magnitude, we need to use all
homeless person by looking at their teeth. I
the tools available.
think about my mentor’s words decades
Brushing with fluoridated toothpaste is a
later as I see homeless youth packing a
start, but it’s clearly just not enough.
cavity with tobacco snuff to ease the pain.
Fluoridating our water ensures that every
There are thousands of people in our
family has access to a safe, effective and
community with no access to dental care at
affordable cavity prevention measure,
all. Homeless youths often grew up poor
regardless of income, ethnicity or education
and many have never had dental insurance
level. It’s time Portland makes a different
or have ever seen a dentist. Sleeping on the
choice, the community choice. It’s time to
streets, in squats and shelters, homeless
fluoridate our water as an investment in
youth have very little control over personal
children’s health, educational success, and
hygiene or what they eat.
social justice.
At Outside In we see blackened and
Studies have shown that fluoridated water
missing teeth all the time. It is a serious
reduces dental decay by at least 25 percent
health problem. It is an employment
percent. There have been more than 3,000
problem. It is a barrier to getting off the
studies of its safety and effectiveness.
streets and joining mainstream society.
When youth have untreated decay and are Fluoridated water has been used for more
in pain they miss school, have trouble eating than 65 years and over 200 million
Americans currently have access to it. In
and speaking, deal with the embarrassment
of tooth loss, and have life-long healthissues fact, Portland is the largest city in the <
country yet to enact water fluoridation —
and costs. Addressing dental decay is also
and our children’s teeth are paying the
remarkably expensive. A 10-year-old child
who develops cavities will pay more than
price.
To help with the dental health crisis new'
$2,000 over a lifetime to take care of just
BY JOHN DUKE
John Duke is the
Clinic and Health
Services Director for
Outside In.
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clinics are opening — but they can’t keep
up. We need to do more to prevent
Portlanders from needing urgent care and
painful extractions in the first place. The
volunteer dentists on the Medical Teams
International dental van and the dedicated
staff at the new Multnomah County Billi
Odegaard Dental Clinic are heroes, They are
trying to help and heal people each day. The
big problem is that they are fighting a fight
that cannot be won one mouth at a time.
There are too many barriers for low income
people — we are living in a society where
there are extreme disparities in access to
dental care. Education, access to more care,
and healthier foods are all an important part
of the comprehensive dental health program
we need in Portland but it only makes sense
that our community should take the
precaution of fluoridating our water to give
everybody a better chance at having healthy
teeth.
Outside In has weighed the arguments for
and against water fluoridation. We love the
uniqueness of our community and our
patriotic leaning toward what’s “weird,” but
when weird ends up hurting children and
those who can’t afford dental care, weird
becomes “wrong.” This is one area where
the public health data is irrefutable.
Every major health care organization in
the country, from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to the National
Institutes of Health, has come to the same
conclusion: Fluoridation is safe and
effective. It is time for Portland to embrace
the norm when it comes to protecting our
kids. It’s time Portland makes a different
choice. It’s time to fluoridate our water as
an act of social justice. Please join me,
Outside In, the Coalition of Community
Health Clinics, Medical Teams International,
and over 80 other organizations in
endorsing a YES vote on ballot measure
26-151 on or before May 21.
Visit www.HealthyKidsHealthyPortland.org
to learn more.
Portland
www.portlandhearingvoices.net