I want to take today’s blog to extend my sincere congratulations to Dr. Urlich Klein, chair of the departments of pediatric dentistry at Children’s Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine, who will serve as the inaugural chair of the Delta Dental of Colorado Endowed Chair in Pediatric Dentistry.
Dr. Klein has served in his current position with Children’s Hospital Colorado since 2006 and served as program director of the hospital’s pediatric dentistry residency program before that. This endowed chair will create a stable source of funding year after year, enabling dental clinicians, researchers, and team members to fund critical solutions today and plan longer term for preventative dentistry and dental advances of tomorrow.
As part of Delta Dental of Colorado’s mission to improve the oral health of the communities we serve, we feel a special obligation to ensure healthier smiles for future generations of Colorado’s children. Children’s oral health is an important issue to address for many reasons:
- Untreated tooth decay in children has been identified as a “silent epidemic” by the Center for Disease Control.
- Almost 40 percent of kindergarteners in Colorado have untreated tooth decay and, some underserved populations, that statistic is 70 percent.
- Dental health issues are a leading cause of school absenteeism for Colorado kids.
- Children with tooth decay are four times more likely to have a drop in their grade point average.
We are so grateful to Children’s Hospital Colorado for helping us tackle this critical health issue!