Child fluoride application subsidy age limit relaxed; extended until elementary school entry starting September

Central News Agency, Taipei, May 23. The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) provides subsidies for fluoride application for children aged 0 to under 6. Due to differences in school age calculations, some children who turned 6 but had not yet entered school faced a gap in subsidy eligibility. The MOHW recently announced that the upper age limit for the subsidy will be relaxed to 'before entering elementary school,' effective in September. The Department of Oral Health of the MOHW announced on the 20th that it has amended the 'Notes for Medical Service Institutions on Providing Oral Preventive Health Services.' One of the key points is to amend the 'subsidy age conditions for general child fluoride application' to 'from 0 years old to August 31 of the year of entering elementary school.' Zhang Yong-min, Director of the Department of Oral Health, said in a media interview today that fluoride application helps children's teeth 'put on a coat,' which helps reduce the rate of tooth decay by at least 30%. The relevant amendments will take effect in September this year. In addition to children under 6, the Department of Oral Health currently subsidizes fluoride application once every three months for children under 12 from low-income households, those with disabilities, and those in indigenous, remote, and outlying island areas. Regarding this new system, Tseng Shih-che, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Dental Association, explained via text message that in the past, the subsidy was based on 'under 6 years old,' but the current school system uses September enrollment as the boundary. Therefore, children born between September and December enter school one year later than children born in the same year. Consequently, in practice, some children exceeded the original subsidy age during their last year of kindergarten, creating a 'gap' of several months where they could not apply for the subsidy, which easily caused misunderstandings and trouble between kindergartens, dental clinics, and parents. He feels that this amendment aligns with the school system and is 'very good.' Chen Shih-yueh, Chairman of the Taiwan Dental Association, suggested that not only children but everyone should brush their teeth twice a day for two minutes each time, and use toothpaste with a fluoride concentration of 1000ppm or more. Since such toothpaste is not easy to obtain, the Dental Association and the Pharmacist Association have recently been working together to promote it so that the public can buy it at pharmacies.