CDA Essentials 2019 • Volume 6 • Issue 5

9 Issue 5 | 2019 | CDA at W ork A t this year’s Days on the Hill event, I was privileged to lead a delegation that gathered in Ottawa to advocate for policy changes that would improve the health of Canadians (p. 10). After two days of meetings with parliamentarians, I felt energized and grateful for the opportunity to work with a group of remarkable individuals that included dentists from across Canada and representatives from the Assembly of First Nations. The CDA delegation pushed for changes that would benefit vulnerable groups—those who don’t access oral health care services and who generally have the highest oral health care needs. We recommended targeted investments to help fund existing or lapsed oral health care programs administered by the provinces or territories. Across the country, use of publicly funded oral health care programs is increasing dramatically, particularly among low-income seniors, children, and individuals with mobility, developmental, physical, and mental health challenges. Yet despite this growing demand, funding has failed to keep pace over the past decade. Unlike previous years, we also had discussions with policy-makers that were not specifically focused on dentistry. We recommended that any new national pharmacare program focus on delivering access to Canadians with no other means of coverage, while preserving the current system of paying for prescription drugs through employer-sponsored and privately purchased health care plans. CDA maintains that this policy approach—filling gaps in the system rather than providing comprehensive universal coverage—is the best way to ensure sustainability, by focusing public funding in core areas. We recommended that Indigenous Services Canada address poor drinking water conditions in First Nations Communities on an urgent basis. Without access to clean water, there can be no hope of improving oral heath disparities in Indigenous children, who experience caries rates that are four to five times higher than the national average, high rates of periodontal disease, and significantly more day surgeries for early childhood caries under general anesthesia than the general population. The federal government’s focus on ending boil water advisories in Indigenous communities must continue, along with a commitment to finding long-term, sustainable solutions for providing high-quality drinking water. It may seem unusual for CDA to be advocating about issues that are outside the more immediate concerns of our profession. But in doing so, CDA recognizes that more needs to be done to improve health equity in Canada, and that measures for improving oral health outcomes in our most vulnerable populations can’t be considered in isolation from their social and economic circumstances, including their income, social status, and ability to access safe water. And in practice, when we provide our patients with a treatment approach that considers the broader context of their lives, we will have greater success in helping them achieve the best possible oral health outcomes. From the President Alexander (Sandy)Mutchmor, dmd president@cda-adc.ca CDA Advocates for VulnerableCanadians