(a) The commissioner of health is authorized to develop a comprehensive state oral health plan. The plan may be used to direct skilled personnel and funding decisions in order to reduce the prevalence of oral disease. The plan may enable the state to compete more effectively for funding resources and opportunities.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-1-305

  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) The commissioner may develop the plan in consultation with public and private agencies, partners, and stakeholders, including the state oral health coalition and members of the public health, dental, and medical communities.
(c) The plan may:

(1) Include state-specific data;
(2) Be maintained in a current and relevant form with updates every five (5) years;
(3) Be distributed broadly to public partners and policymakers; and
(4) Provide specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-framed (S.M.A.R.T.) objectives.
(d) The plan may also include:

(1) A logic model;
(2) A strong infrastructure;
(3) Accessibility to current resources;
(4) Identified knowledge gaps in resources and recommendations for eliminating those gaps;
(5) Healthy People 2020 oral health objectives;
(6) Identified priority populations and the burdens of oral disease;
(7) Identified partners with the ability to leverage resources;
(8) A communication plan for addressing new or emerging oral health knowledge specifically for:

(A) Dental caries;
(B) Water fluoridation; and
(C) School-based or school-linked dental sealant programs;
(9) Programs to address oral cancer and periodontal diseases;
(10) Efforts to address infection control in dental settings;
(11) Evaluation activities at the initiation of the planning process that involve recommendations for types of evaluation and plans for monitoring outcomes related to plan implementation;
(12) Identified best practices for replication of program implementation; and
(13) A proposal that identifies the process for updating the plan as required by this section.
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