Oral Health | Vermont Department of Health

In this section:

You cannot be truly healthy without good dental health. Dental health is important for obvious reasons like eating, speaking, feeling good about your smile, and being able to find a job.

Dental health is also important for overall health. For example, people who have diabetes are at greater risk for dental disease, and having dental disease makes it more difficult to control blood sugar levels. Poor dental health has also been linked to heart disease and stroke.

To see how we're doing in Vermont: Oral Health Performance Scorecard

Find Vermont data, reports and publications on dental health: Plans & Reports

We partner to promote dental/oral health.

We work collaboratively with partners across the state and nation to support early preventive dental health – beginning in pregnancy.

We focus on evidence-based dental health strategies like fluoride varnish, community water fluoridation and dental sealants. Our mission is to reduce dental disease and promote dental health for all Vermonters.

The Vermont Oral Health Advisory Panel

The Vermont Oral Health Advisory Panel (VOHAP) is a group of people who are interested in promoting oral health equity. The Vermont Department of Health’s Office of Oral Health coordinates the group, which includes representatives of statewide institutions, including dental professional organizations, dental career training programs, insurance companies, Agency of Human Services partners and Federally Qualified Health Centers, as well as individual members. We may come from different perspectives but we share a passion for promoting oral health.

The group meets quarterly for two hours to learn about topics related to dental public health; the first hour is usually a presentation by a guest speaker or panel of speakers followed by Q and A, and time for updates and networking among VOHAP members. Previous topics include: school-based dental health, teledentistry and the Virtual Dental Home model, minimally invasive dental care, and health equity in dentistry. We do not have a recurring meeting time; meetings are scheduled based on speaker availability.

In addition to learning about topics related to dental health, opportunities arise to work on ad-hoc projects. Most recently, members of the VOHAP updated our Vermont Oral Health Plan.

If you are interested in joining the Vermont Oral Health Advisory Panel or learning more about the Office of Oral Health, please email [email protected].