Ky. governor starts effort on state's dental health

"Eight months after newswoman Diane Sawyer introduced to 11 million ABC viewers the term 'Mountain Dew Mouth' to describe the epidemic-like oral health problems of kids in Eastern Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear is doing something about it," Al Smith and Keturah Gray write in an op-ed for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Gray was a co-producer on the documentary, "A Forgotten America: Children of Appalachia," which aired in February.

Beshear said he would work to pull Kentucky off the bottom in dental health, a distinction it shares with West Virginia, and begin with $2 million to train rural dentists how to better serve children. A recent Kentucky Youth Advocates study found "They just didn't know how to deal with squalling frightened kids," Smith and Gray write. Other steps will "create community coalitions throughout Appalachia to better tailor health care solutions and programs to impacted counties" and provide portable dental equipment "to increase access and use of dental services for both children and adults," Beshear's press release said.

"It is almost tragically late, but Beshear is admitting that Kentucky — with two dental schools, three medical schools, colleges of social work and public health — has seriously failed to care for the oral health of its young," the writers opine. "With a state budget slashed by hundreds of millions, the governor is to be commended for spending new money, although pitifully small, to give a high priority on this need which has been hidden too long . . . " (Read more)