HJAR Mar/Apr 2024

60 MAR / APR 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS ORAL HEALTH solution that is painted on cavitated lesions. It stains anything it touches and turns the carious lesion black but arrests the decay. It provides a non-invasive technique to man- age caries until the child can cope with tra- ditional restorative dental care. The use of SDF has been found to be useful for special needs patients, patients who are unable to transport to the dental office, or patients who are required to be sedated due to a number of reasons, such as an allergy to anesthetic. Of special note, on Sept. 15, 2022, the American Medical Association (AMA) voted to approve a new procedure code for the ap- plication of SDF by medical professionals to arrest cavities. 19 Before this, the use of SDF was largely limited to the dental profession because there were no formal professional guidelines for use outside of dentistry. The addition of this code is a milestone in med- ical-dental integration and a step forward for oral health equity, providing access of this valuable treatment for Americans who don’t see the dentist every year. Lastly, fluoridated water is an easy preven- tion tool we can all use daily. Ironically, many people drink bottled water and do not get the benefits unless they select one that includes fluoride. Arkansas ranks 19th in the nation in the category of fluoridation, which equates to 85.8% of the population of Arkansas. 20 In response toAct 197 of theArkansas Leg- islature, Delta Dental of Arkansas pledged to fund the community water fluoridation of all Arkansas water systems. The 7-year, $7 million project resulted in a percentage high- er than the national average, which is 75%. 21 That is a positive fact for the Natural State and improves oral health for all Arkansans! These oral and caries risk assessments are another commonality of the association of oral health and overall health. n REFERENCES 1 Beck, J. “Why Dentistry is Separate from Medi- cine.” The Atlantic, March 9, 2017. https://www. theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/why- dentistry-is-separated-from-medicine/518979/ 2 Rasmussen, C.M.; McMillan, K.B.; McMillan, D.C.; et al. “Education Solutions to the Medical-Dental Di- vide.” AMA Journal of Ethics 4, no. 1 (Jan. 1, 2022): E27-32. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2022.27 3 Simon, L. “Overcoming Historical Separation be- tween Oral and General Health Care: Interprofes- sional Collaboration for Promoting Health Equity.” AMA Journal of Ethics 18, no. 9 (Sep. 1, 2016): 941- 9. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.9.pfor1-1609 4 Stephens, M.B.; Wiedemer, J.P.; Kushner, G.M. “Dental Problems in Primary Care.” American Fam- ily Physician 98, no. 11 (Dec. 1, 2018): 654-660. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2018/1201/ p654.html 5 Gutkowski, S.; DiGangi, P.; Harper, M. “Economics of the Team Approach: How-to Guide for the Mini- mally Invasive Dental Practice.” Inside Dentistry 5, issue 6 (June 2009). https://www.aegisdentalnet - work.com/id/2009/06/diagnostics-economics- of-the-team-approach-how-to-guide-for-the- minimally-invasive-dental-practice 6 Lamster, I.B. “The 2021 WHO Resolution on Oral Health.” International Dental Journal 71, no. 4 (August 2021): 279-280. doi: 10.1016/j. identj.2021.06.003 7 Sadegh-Zadeh, S.A.; Rahmani Qeranqayeh, A.; Benkhalifa, E.; et al. “Dental Caries Risk Assess- ment in Children 5 Years Old and under via Ma- chine Learning.” Dentistry Journal (Basel) 10, no. 9 (Sep. 1, 2022): 164. doi: 10.3390/dj10090164 8 Dharmatti, S.; Bargale, S.; Khandelwal, J.R.; Jain, S. “Caries Risk Assessment – An Initiation to Pre- vention: A Literature Review.” Journal of Integrat- ed Health Sciences 9, no. 2 (Jul-Dec 2021): p 49- 53. doi: 10.4103/jihs.jihs_18_21 9 American Academy of Pediatrics. “American Academy of Pediatrics Oral Health Risk Assess- ment Tool.” 2023. https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/ PDF/oralhealth_RiskAssessmentTool.pdf 10 Foxman, B.; Davis, E.; Neiswanger, K.; et al. “Ma- ternal factors and risk of early childhood caries: A prospective cohort study.” Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 51, no. 5 (October 2023): 953-965. doi: 10.1111/cdoe.12794 11 Clark, M.B.; Slayton, R.L.; Braun, P. “Fluoride Use in Caries Prevention in the Primary Care Set- ting.” Pediatrics 146, no. 6 (2020): e2020034637. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-034637 12 Glick, A.; Sista, V.; Johnson, C. “Oral Manifesta- tions of Commonly Prescribed Drugs.” American Family Physician 102, no. 9 (Nov. 14, 2020): 613-621. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2020/1115/ p613.html 13 American Dental Association. “ADA Caries Risk Assessment Form Completion Instructions.” Ac- cessed January 2024 (2009, 2011). https://www. ada.org/-/media/project/ada-organization/ada/ ada-org/files/resources/public-programs/give- kids-a-smile/gkas_caries_risk_assessment_forms. pdf 14 American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. “Car- ies-Risk Assessment and Management for Infants, Children, and Adolescents.” The Reference Manual of Pediatric Dentistry 2023: 301-307. https://www. aapd.org/media/Policies_Guidelines/BP_Caries- RiskAssessment.pdf 15 Featherstone, J.D.B.; Crystal, Y.O.; Alston, P.; et al. “Evidence-Based Caries Management for All Ages-Practical Guidelines.” Frontiers in Oral Health 2 (April 27, 2021): 657518. doi: 10.3389/ froh.2021.657518 16 Rodriguez, J.L.; Thakkar-Samtani, M.; Heaton, L.J.; et al. “Caries risk and social determinants of health: A big data report.” Journal of the Ameri- can Dental Association 154, no. 2 (February 2023): 113-121. doi: 10.1016/j.adaj.2022.10.006 17 Zea, A.; Henshaw, M. “Promoting Children's Health Equity With Medical-Dental Integration.” AMA Journal of Ethics 24, no. 1 (Jan. 1, 2022): E33- 40. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2022.33 18 America’s Health Rankings. “Summary of Arkan- sas.” Accessed January 2024. https://www.ameri - cashealthrankings.org/explore/states/AR 19 CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. “New CPT code encourages health professionals to ap- ply SDF to treat cavities.” Dentistry IQ, Nov. 21, 2022. https://www.dentistryiq.com/dentistry/arti- cle/14286046/new-cpt-code-encourages-health- professionals-to-apply-silver-diamine-fluoride-to- treat-cavities 20 America’s Health Rankings. “Water Fluorida- tion in Arkansas.” Accessed January 2024. https:// www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/mea- sures/water_fluoridation/AR 21 Delta Dental of Arkansas. “Delta Dental of Arkan- sas Turns 40.” August 2022. https://www.deltaden - talar.com/about/news/news-detail/2022/08/11/ delta-dental-of-arkansas-turns-40 “The number of dentists per 100,000 resident population for Arkansas is ranked 48th, and number of dental visits ranked 49th nationally.”