SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Public Health is sponsoring an "oral health summit" on Tuesday (Sept. 11) in Chicago to discuss the state's response to the U.S. Surgeon General's call for a comprehensive plan to improve oral health.

The special summit meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health's Psychiatric Building auditorium, 1603 W. Taylor St., and feature a presentation by Dr. Caswell Evans, director of the National Oral Health Initiative, Office of the U.S. Surgeon General.

Since U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher in May 2000 issued the first-ever report on the nation's oral health, the Department has worked to build awareness and strategies to improve oral health. At Dr. Satcher's urging, the Department is leading the effort to develop a plan to promote oral health as a component of general health, to meet the needs of persons who suffer from oral disease, to deal with the oral health infrastructure, to remove barriers to care, and to build a science and evidence base that can be used to improve oral health.

The Department has held community meetings throughout the state to elicit input to the plan. In addition, more than 50 local health departments and communities conducted oral health needs assessments, public-private partnerships formulated ideas to improve access to dental services and the University of Illinois School of Public Health's Health Policy and Research Center created a blueprint to improve the state's dental health infrastructure.

At the summit, participants will be briefed on the proposed plan and be able to make recommendations that will be included in a final document that is expected to be available later this year.