(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:
Statewide, students miss seven million eight hundred thousand school hours eachyear due to oral pain. Nationwide, workers miss one hundred sixty-four million work hours each year due to dental issues.
Forty percent of children in kindergarten and fifty-five percent of children in thirdgrade have a history of dental decay.
Children in low-income schools have twice as much untreated tooth decay and aretwice as likely to have a history of cavities than children who are not in low-income schools.
Among children, ninety percent of dental decay is in the pits and fissures of posteriorpermanent teeth.
Children who have received dental sealants in a school-based program have, for aperiod of up to five years, sixty percent fewer new decayed pit and fissure surfaces in their posterior permanent teeth than children who have not received an application of dental sealants.
Fluoride is nature's cavity fighter. Fluoride occurs naturally in almost all water sources. Since 1948, scientific research has shown that community water fluoridation can reduce the incidence of dental cavities.
Community water fluoridation is the process of adjusting the level of fluoride foundnaturally in water to a level recommended to protect against dental decay. The centers for disease control named community water fluoridation as one of ten great public health achievements of the twentieth century.
Water fluoridation is safe and provides the most cost-effective means to prevent tooth decay for persons of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Water fluoridation is one of the most researched and cost-effective oral health interventions available, as the average cost of one dental filling can fund a lifetime of fluoridation, which is known to prevent eighteen to forty percent of cavities in both children and adults.
The general assembly further finds that improving access to oral health care servicesand fluoridated water for all Coloradans, particularly low-income Coloradans, will reduce the burden of oral disease. Therefore, the Colorado oral health program dedicates itself to improving access to oral health care services by working with community stakeholders, professional organizations, and direct recipients of oral health care to remove barriers to access to oral health care.
The purpose of this article is to promote the public health and welfare of Coloradansby providing a grant program to:
Provide oral health services, including sealants, to school children; and
Assist communities in attaining optimal levels of fluoride in drinking water providedby community water systems as a means of preventing dental decay.
Source: L. 97: Entire article added, p. 1127, § 1, effective May 28. L. 2013: Entire section R&RE, (SB 13-261), ch. 404, p. 2367, § 3, effective June 5.