To improve our oral health, state legislators and federal agencies must have current and reliable information on a regular basis to determine Nebraska’s oral health status. This surveillance is needed to see where we stand now, to determine our deficiencies and to take positive action moving forward. Surveillance is generally carried out by public health officials and may involve collecting data from multiple sources. Nebraska does not have an active system in place which would allow us to track this necessary data. HP 2020 OH-16 target is to have an oral health surveillance system in each state. Currently, Nebraska is only listing data on 6 of the 17 HP2020 objectives.

The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) recommend state dental surveillance plans include oral health outcomes, risk factors, community interventions and access to the oral health care system.¹ There is an array of state level indicators that could be sources of possible oral health information such as information on the dental workforce, community fluoridation levels and cancer rates. A plan will be created to use current data to protect and promote Nebraska population wide oral health. The framework of this surveillance system is expected to include the eight core indicators, the ten essential indicators of the operational definition for OH-16, and other potential indicators. It will monitor the prevalence of oral diseases, to identify the risk factors, to detect the access to dental care, and to determine the effectiveness of preventive services. This surveillance guideline will provide concise and reliable data to the state dental director and the significant others such as general public, public policy makers, and the stakeholders in a timely manner. Information also will be periodically disseminated to the appropriate audiences through an accessible approach. The creation of this system framework begins with the system design, data collection, analysis and public communication of the findings to help shape program policies. A team of experts, mostly from within DHHS Division of Public Health will be needed to collaborate, design and implement Nebraska's oral health surveillance system. below is a basic guide for a oral health surveillance system.

Conceptual Design of an Effective Oral Health Surveillance Cycle

1. Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, Phipps, K., Kuthy, R., Marianos, D., and Isman, B. State-Based Oral Health Surveillance Systems; October 2013. Available at: http://www.astdd.org/docs/state-based-oral-health-...