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The following Oral Health Champions have been featured in the Oral Health E-Newsletter:
Suzanne Boulter, MD
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Mark Nehring, DMD
Mark Nehring, DMD, is the Chief Dental
Officer
for the Health Resources and
Services Administration Maternal and Child Health
Bureau (MCHB). His areas of activity include administrative responsibility for oral health activity within the MCHB, primarily
through
grants and contracts designed to increase access to services through partnerships, and integration
of systems of
care benefiting women and children.
Dr Nehring holds a Master's degree in
Education and received his professional degree in dentistry from Boston University. He received his Master of Public Health degree from
Johns Hopkins University and is board-eligible in Dental
Public Health.
After graduating from dental school, Dr Nehring held clinical roles in the National Health Service Corps, Indian Health Service, and Office of the Surgeon General before taking on his current administrative responsibilities. He also has 28 years of active duty in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service and holds the rank of Captain.
As a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service, Dr Nehring has the added benefit of working within the mission of a specific agency but is able to augment what is learned or accomplished through an extended family of commissioned corps officers working in other federal agencies. The cadre of officers, who often possess specific expertise and have had a broad range of experiences, offers the opportunity to act collaboratively and in partnership with others in both the public and private sectors. These relationships also help yield success in accomplishing goals and bring collaborative opportunities to work with others toward solving problems and addressing common issues.
Dr Nehring always envisioned that upon graduating from dental school, he would be a small-town dentist in private practice in rural New England. By the end of his first year of dental school, however, he had spent all his savings from part-time jobs so applied for
a National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Scholarship as part of a federal rural health initiative. That was in the late 1970's. His
profile and intent to practice in a rural area was a good match with the program, and he was directed to fulfill his service obligation
in
Cairo, IL.
Nearing completion of the 3-year payback as a general dentist, Dr Nehring was intrigued by an offer to continue with the NHSC in rural Montana or Alaska. He chose Montana, where he discovered the Indian Health Service, and led him to the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota. These 3 states and the diverse practice settings and rampant dental disease made him wonder if something other than a traditional clinical role could help prevent disease before it ever gets started. In his pursuit of this ideal, Dr Nehring began formal public health training as a means of merging clinical experience and program administration to become more involved in breaking the cycle of oral disease as opposed to repairing its ravages. Positions and roles in personnel, policy development, program administration, dental public health, and directing non-dental health programs were integral in bringing him to provide direction for oral health coordination within the MCHB.
Dr Nehring's oral health program responsibilities within the MCHB include program coordination across MCHB Divisions, convening expert meetings to formulate recommendations for priority issues in oral health, and developing grants and contracts to augment State Title V programs that bring technical assistance and resources to support focus on the oral health needs of women and children, especially those most vulnerable to oral disease. The current $3.2 million grant program to states supports oral health projects in 20 states. The program is entering the third of its 4-year grant cycle targeting the oral health needs of children with special health care needs, increasing year 1 dental visits to ensure provision of early intervention and prevention services for at risk children, and making sure follow-up services to treat oral disease identified through screening and sealant programs is completed.
Dr Nehring is also the project officer for an Institute of Medicine study about children's access to oral health services. The purpose
of the study is to address system issues which disproportionately impact the underserved who are most vulnerable to oral disease and the safety net providers, both public and private, intended to serve them. In addition, the project will examine the unique system challenges associated with the provision of oral health services to women and children and will evaluate progress since the publication of the Public Health Service's 1989 report:
Equity and Access for Mothers and Children.
According to Dr Nehring, one of the biggest barriers to preventing caries in young children is a lack of awareness. Herein lies the beauty of having the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) as a partner in addressing the barrier of access to care, especially for families living in poverty. Medicine and dentistry together can be part of the solution by recognizing common frustrations that can be tackled through professional education, patient risk assessment, interventions that apply early prevention therapies, and referrals
for the purpose of establishing a medical/dental home in which comprehensive health care can be provided as part of a team approach to meeting the total health needs of an individual. Also, pediatrician visits bring opportunity for early influence on behaviors within the family, promoting attention to reducing risk factors common to oral and general health. A mother's awareness of her own oral health, also relevant to preventing complications of dental diseases during future pregnancies, helps to interrupt the transmission of disease to the child and reinforces health practice behaviors. It is therefore Dr Nehring's belief that the AAP should continue just what it is doing to increase awareness and promote the valuable role of the physician, while also sharing opportunities for collaboration to fight against something completely preventable.
