Check Against Delivery

Mr. Speaker, good oral health is important to our overall health and quality of life.  Healthy mouths and teeth in children promote healthy growth, nutrition, speech development, good school performance and social well-being.

Cavities, however, are the most common chronic infectious childhood disease, and they place a substantial burden on our population.  Poor oral health contributes to a child’s inability to eat, speak, sleep and learn.  In adults, oral disease has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, pneumonia and Alzheimer’s.

Mr. Speaker, it is important to note that while dental treatment services are not an insured service paid for by the NWT Health Care Plan, our government is working to reduce oral disease among children and youth through the Oral Health Action Plan released in October 2018. 

This Plan outlines four key action areas to improve oral health outcomes to promote oral health throughout the entire NWT population; to establish systematic supports for improved oral health services; to implement the NWT Oral Health Service Delivery Model; and to provide high quality, sustainable and culturally-safe care.

Some highlights of what has been done since the release of the Action Plan include the addition of a Registered Dental Hygienist in Norman Wells and the roll out of daily brushing programs in daycares and schools in our communities.

There have also been investments in dental equipment across the territory by the federal government to support the delivery of dental services in communities where there are no established dental clinics. 

As part of this Action Plan, frontline primary health care providers have begun to integrate oral health screening and education for children and expectant mothers during Prenatal and Well Child Record appointments as well. 

The Department of Health and Social Services and health Authorities are also collaborating with community partners to deliver a multi-age group oral health literacy program.  This program will feature arts-based learning in schools and at community gatherings.  Finally, a territory-wide oral health social marketing campaign will be launched this spring to encourage better oral health self-care to improve oral health outcomes in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, research shows that starting good oral health practices in early childhood will ensure that children will continue to practice brushing and flossing as part of their daily routine.  This is why we partnered with the NWT Literacy Council to provide parents with a brushing song book that they can sing along with their children aged one to four.

Our Ever Awesome NWT Brushing Song book, which I will be tabling later today, was illustrated by Neiva Mateus and written by Tłı̨chǫ Dene author Richard Van Camp. Funding was provided by the federal governments’

Children’s Oral Health Initiative.  The aim of the book is to provide parents with a resource that makes brushing and flossing with their children something that is a fun, daily, family activity.  The brushing song book also promotes the importance of snuggling, reading to one another, and sharing time with each other. It honours the gift of family by looking after their health and spending time together.

Over the months of March and April, Richard Van Camp will be touring communities in the NWT to raise awareness about the book and the importance of oral health. The book will be translated into all the NWT official Indigenous languages, and the audio files for the song will be made available on the Department’s website.

An animated storyboard promoting oral health for older children is also being produced in all the NWT official languages.  We are looking forward to the first screening of this original media project later this summer.

Mr. Speaker, oral health is an important part of our overall health.  This book is one of many resources that we will be developing for parents and caregivers to help them teach good oral health practices to their children.  I want to thank Richard Van Camp, Neiva Mateus, and the NWT Literacy Council for partnering with us to raise awareness about good oral health.

I encourage all parents to embrace the idea of fun-filled brushing and flossing time with their children, and encourage everyone to give oral health the time and respect it deserves as an important part of overall health and wellbeing.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.