Infrastructure Development Tools

Activity 6: Policy Development

State oral health programs should conduct a periodic assessment of laws, regulations, administrative policies, and systems-level strategies that offer the potential to reduce oral diseases.

The assessment can reveal opportunities for overcoming barriers, capitalizing on assets available in the state, increasing capacity, and coordinating prevention interventions. In addition, the assessment can help a state develop a policy action plan and implement a set of activities that include the priorities established from the assessment process.

The state oral health program management will then have the information necessary to educate policymakers about how to increase the capacity and effectiveness of the state oral health program.

Examples of such changes in health systems and policies include mandates for fluoridation in communities with water systems that serve a specified number of households and increased Medicaid reimbursement for specific oral health services.

States with advanced capacity in this area may:

• Implement policies that support evidence- and population-based strategies consistent with the state oral health plan. Examples may be oral health policies, legislation, regulations, ordinances, guidelines and standards that promote optimal oral health such as water fluoridation and school-based or school-linked dental sealant programs, and statutory authority for the state oral health program and/or state dental director position;
• Increase the extent to which population-based interventions address established objectives that are informed by surveillance data and prioritized from the state oral health plan, the policy action plan, or the program strategic plan; and
• Evaluate the impact of and lessons learned from implementation of policies

Additional Resources

The purpose of the Environment Assessment Instrument Tool (EAI) (PDF–92K) is to systematically inventory and assess community- and state-level environmental and policy factors that might impact oral health programs. The tool was designed as an integrative and participatory process and should involve a team of key program stakeholders. Program and policy planners can use the results of the EAI to determine appropriate leverage points. They can also identify barriers, facilitators, and respective strategies to address them. The EAI can be used at various stages of a program. For example, it can be used during program planning to inform program and policy planners of salient environmental and policy influences as they proceed in designing their oral health program.

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Page last reviewed: September 15, 2009
Page last modified: September 15, 2009
Content source: Division of Oral Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion