Thank you for the opportunity to address you today.
CDHA represents dental hygienists in Canada, who number 20,000. We rank eighth in size among other health professional disciplines.
The newly released “Report on the Findings of the Oral Health Component of the Canadian Health Measures Survey 2007-2009” is a call to action to invest in oral health. The survey shows good oral health is not experienced evenly across all segments of the population, since there is a lack of equitable access to oral health professionals and the cost of treatment for oral diseases is prohibitive for vulnerable segments of the population, including low-income Canadians.
Canada’s health system is ranked a shocking fifth out of seven countries on equity issues, particularly equitable access to oral health care. Those with the poorest oral health, the least education, and the lowest income have less access to oral health care providers. Many of these individuals are children, seniors, persons with disabilities, and aboriginal people.
Because of the cost, between 17% and 33% of low-income individuals do not visit oral health professionals, and their oral health outcomes are two times worse than those of higher-income Canadians.
When it comes to oral health care, many European nations have national oral health plans. However, in Canada public funding is a paltry 6% of all oral health expenditures, with the federal government contributing 40% and the provinces 60%.
We call on the federal government to invest in oral health in five areas.
The first is the Canadian oral health strategy. We ask for financial support for the office of the chief dental officer to revise the 2005 oral health strategy to reflect the findings from the oral health survey. The strategy must include a government implementation plan, and a working group should include dental hygienists.
Second is the Canada Health Act. We call for the development of a comprehensive plan to provide oral health promotion and disease prevention for all Canadians as part of the continuum of care in the Canada Health Act. The timing is right, as community and physicians' groups are also calling for expanded oral health coverage based on the tie-in with systemic health. You have to connect the mouth to the body. It is time to classify oral diseases such as caries and periodontal disease, or gum disease, as chronic diseases.
Third is public health human resources. We call for collaboration with the provincial and territorial governments to develop a comprehensive plan to fund oral health promotion and disease prevention public health programs. At the present time, there are almost 43,000 oral health care providers in Canada; however, only 700 are in public health, creating a ratio of 46,000 Canadians to every oral public health professional. The federal government must invest $10 million each year into a designated fund in order to double the existing 453 dental hygienists who practise in public health. It is a necessity to mobilize dental hygiene professionals in the public health system, as they are prevention specialists, oral health educators, and interdisciplinary collaborators.
Fourth is data collection and research. Oral health data are critical to developing oral health policies and programs, but we've had no new data for 30 years. The federal government must incorporate an oral health component into the oral health strategy every five years and expand the strategy to include infants, young children, adolescents at risk, and seniors.
It's important to survey children because early childhood caries is the most common chronic childhood disease and one of the main reasons that children receive a general anaesthetic. It's also important to survey seniors, as a large number of seniors are keeping their teeth as they age. However, physical and mental health complications, medication, and decreased dexterity significantly compromise their oral health.
The fifth area is first nations and Inuit oral health. Upon release of the first nations and Inuit oral health surveys expected early in 2011, the federal government must work collaboratively with stakeholders--