Spring 2019 Newswire

Letter from our President

Hello fellow dental hygienists,

I would like to begin by thanking everyone that has requested the newswire to keep up to date on what is going on in the state. My sincere apologies for the delay!! I am proud to announce we have many things going on at the state level. To begin, in December 2018 Governor Snyder signed SB 541 Dental Therapy bill into law. I would like to thank all of the Michigan hygienists, stakeholders and ADHA for all of your support. Without partners like Amy Zaagman at Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health, Ann Lynch at ADHA and of course our dental champion Sen. Mike Shirkey this would not be possible. Currently, MDHA, ADHA and a task force at the Board of Dentistry (BOD) are all sitting at the same table developing the rules for this work force model. A special thanks for past MDHA Presidents Cheryl Bentley and Kathleen Inman for their watchful eye on this BOD task force. This process has until the end of the year to finalize the rules so stay tuned for more information.

In current legislative news, Rep. Scott VanSingel has re-introduced his Pre-K Oral Assessment legislation HB 4223. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Families, Children and Seniors. If Rep. VanSingel’s bill passes it would make dental assessments mandatory for entering kindergarten just like hearing and vision test have been for decades. This bill has many stakeholders including the MDA, Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, Michigan Primary Care Association, and Michigan Association for Local Public Health, just to name a few. We do have a hearing on this bill scheduled mid-May. We will keep you updated on the status of this bill.

On May 1, 2019 our annual Legislative Luncheon was held at the House building in Lansing. In total we had over 50 representatives and 48 RDH’s in attendance. Our main focus this year was advocating for the Pre-K Oral Assessment bill and Dental Hygiene Prescriptive Authority in Michigan. If passed, this would allow RDH’s to be granted prescriptive authority for any fluoride supplements, topical fluoride toothpaste (Prevident 5000), or anti-infective rinse (Peridex). This bill would not allow for prescribing of controlled substances.

In April 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a proclamation on behalf of the people of Michigan to declare the month of April Oral Cancer Month. I would like to thank Sandy Sutton for her work on writing this proclamation. What an amazing time to be a hygienist in Michigan!

In the past year it has come to my attention that the Collect that we recite at the Board of Trustee meetings and the House of Delegates has become antiquated. There was a request for the Board of Trustees to develop a task force to archive the Collect and all its history and develop a new pledge. In October 2018 a task force was formed, and in January a proposed MDHA pledge was read to the Board of Trustees. The task force used many different resources including RDH pledge, Code of Ethics and the Collect. On April 27, 2019 the Board of Trustees made a motion to archive the Collect and vote in the new MDHA Pledge. The new MDHA Pledge will be recited at all of the Board of Trustee meetings as well as the House of Delegate meetings in October.

Save the date in your calendar for two upcoming events. ADHA Annual Session will be held this year in Louisville, Kentucky on June 21-25. Pack your cowboy hat, grab your friends and meet us down there ya’ll. The second event is the Oral Awareness Michigan 5K Walk/Run on August 8, 2019 in Birmingham at Seaholm High School.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the members of the Michigan Dental Hygienists’ Association! Without your continued support to this association none of this legislation would be a reality. The association is committed to protect your scope of practice as well as advancing Michigan to be the best state to practice dental hygiene. I am so proud of all of our members, we may be small in comparison to the number of hygienists in the state but we are powerful!!

Warm regards,

Becky Domagalski RDH BSDH

Dental Fluorosis

By Sandy Sutton

NHANES Dental Fluorosis Report- There has been a study released by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey through the CDC related to increased fluorosis present in children. The report is being released with the understanding that the data is flawed. It is showing a severe increase of fluorosis. The CDC and other oral health advocates are producing informational forms discussing the issues with calibration and identification by examiners.

The study included children ages 6-9 years old who had their 1st permanent molars observed in 2001-2004, then received a follow-up examination 10 years later at the ages of 16-19 in 2011-2014. Both groups were born between 1992-1998 sharing the same environmental exposures, yet the results were “Biologically implausible” as they showed an increase of the fluorosis prevalence from 9.5 to 46.9%. Previous research has shown that the only time frame that children develop fluorosis is when the teeth are in the developmental stages- prior to 8 years of age. Once teeth are formed, they cannot “acquire” fluorosis. From this information, it was clear that the “difference” had to be a result of the calibration in the examiners. Oral Health Professionals need to be aware of this report and how to respond when questioned by patients. Once it is released to the public, we fully expect the anti-fluoride activists to be active in the media. The NHANES report and response statements are included as an attachment.