CDC oral health division remains intact

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will retain its Division of Oral Health (DOH), according to a story in ADA News.

Earlier this year, the CDC came under fire after announcing a restructuring proposal that would have folded the division into the Division of Adult and Community Health.

The ADA, Academy of General Dentistry, American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), and a group of former chief dental officers of the U.S. Public Health Service all sent letters to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, voicing their opposition.

In each case, the authors emphasized that if the consolidation occurred, oral health would inevitably become less of a priority.

"Dissolving one of the separate dental divisions from the department would only seem to decrease and take away from highlighting the importance of preventing and treating oral disease," the ADA letter stated.

"Such organizational changes would diminish the visibility of oral health at CDC during a time of critical need for public health leadership less than a year after the Department of Health and Human Services announced and began to implement a department-wide oral health initiative," the letter from former chief dental officers of the U.S. Public Health Service stated.