October is breast cancer awareness month. Black women are roughly 40% more more likely to die from breast cancer than white women and are more likely than white women to be diagnosed with breast cancer at younger ages, in later stages, and for more aggressive types of breast cancer.

Earlier this month US Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule that requires summaries of mammography results, including a press release of breast density, to be prepared at the start. This rule could save lives within the Black community because Black women are inclined to have denser breast tissue than white women, which might increase the risk of developing breast cancer and make it harder to identify early symptoms on a mammogram.

Susan G CommentsThe world’s leading breast cancer organization issued a press release on the new ruling: “Knowledge is power, and all women can now have informed conversations with their doctors about the right screening plan for them based on the factors that influence their risk of breast cancer.” including breast density,” Molly Guthrie, vp of policy and advocacy.

“Knowledge is power, and all women can now have informed conversations with their health care providers about the screening plan that is right for them based on factors that influence breast cancer risk, including breast density,” said Molly Guthrie, vp of policy and advocacy at Susan G. Komen. “This may mean that additional tests are recommended to accurately detect breast cancer.”

Breast density is a mammogram measurement of fibrous and glandular tissue, including the lobules and ducts that produce and transport milk, in comparison with fatty tissue within the breast. Dense breasts are common, affecting roughly 40-50% of U.S. women aged 40-74. However, breast density is just one factor that affects a girl’s risk of breast cancer. Age, gender, genetics, family health history and lifestyle aspects all play a big role in an individual’s overall risk. Women with very dense breasts are 4-5 times more more likely to develop breast cancer, and dense breast tissue can hide lumps on mammograms. Komen encourages women to refer to their health care providers about their breast density and whether additional breast imaging could also be appropriate for them.

By September 10, 2024, mammogram reports must include an assessment of breast density. The reports will include general findings – the breasts are dense or the breasts are not dense – and extra details concerning the density level:

• Breasts are almost completely fatty (not dense)
• Breasts have scattered areas of fibroglandular density (not dense)
• Breasts are heterogeneously dense, which can obscure small masses (dense)
• Breasts are extremely dense, which reduces the sensitivity of mammography (dense)

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), tens of millions of people have universal access to annual mammograms starting at age 40, without having to share the price for the patient. However, let’s assume that breast imaging is required along with screening mammography. When this happens, patients often face out-of-pocket costs of lots of and even hundreds of dollars, which poses a big financial barrier to accessing the care they need.

“We want everyone to know that dense breast tissue itself does not require additional imaging – it is just one risk factor for breast cancer,” Guthrie added. “For those who need imaging beyond mammography, out-of-pocket costs are often a barrier. That’s why we have advocated for state and federal legislation to eliminate these expenses. We have the technology to detect breast cancer earlier and save lives, and financial barriers should not stand in the way. It is crucial to understand and affordably access the breast imaging tests they need based on their individual risk.”

“The new federal breast density regulations provide women across the United States with meaningful and more consistent information concerning the density of their breasts. Women with very dense breasts are 4-5 times more more likely to develop breast cancer than women with fatty breasts, and a few studies show that black women are more more likely to have dense breasts. Breast cancer health disparities have a profound impact on Black women, and having more information may help women speak up for themselves and have informed conversations with their healthcare providers. Susan G. Komen encourages women to refer to their health care providers about breast density, in addition to their risk of developing breast cancer, and to contemplate which breast imaging test is correct for them,” said Natasha Mmeje, director of community education and outreach at Susan G. Komem.

The Susan G. Komen Center for Public Policy is working with state and federal lawmakers to pass laws that may eliminate out-of-pocket spending on imaging tests beyond screening mammography. So far 26 states have eliminated out-of-pocket costs patients covered by state medical health insurance plans for diagnostics and/or additional imaging tests. At the federal level Access to the act on breast cancer diagnosis has been introduced within the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, but is unlikely to be passed on this Congress. Komen calls for legislative motion to remove financial and administrative barriers to breast imaging, ensuring all patients can follow advisable screening guidelines based on their risk.

Additionally, Komen’s ongoing health equity initiative within the Black community, Stand for HER. This health equity revolution is a targeted initiative to scale back breast cancer disparities among the many Black community by 25%, starting in U.S. metropolitan areas where disparities are highest; read more Here.

Black doctors and other people of color are much more likely to simply accept Medicaid as a type of payment than white doctors, in accordance with newly published research, underscoring the necessity to expand Medicaid and Medicare.

According to research published in , people from communities “underrepresented in medicine” were more more likely to achieve this. meeting with Medicaid beneficiaries than their white counterparts. While the study acknowledged its own limitations, it also pointed to the necessity for greater diversity within the medical field.

According to the study, the study indicates that Black and Latino physicians are 60% and 40% more likely, respectively, to have contact with Medicaid beneficiaries, and likewise generally have greater representation of those patients of their patient profiles than white physicians. The study also highlights the necessity for greater diversity within the medical field, which has come under attack from conservative groups after the Supreme Court ruled affirmative motion unconstitutional in 2023.

Additionally, the study confirms previous research that found that physicians from underrepresented populations were more more likely to open family medicine practices in communities of color which have not traditionally had access to high-quality health care.

According to the article’s lead writer, Anushree Vichare, the article doesn’t argue that “we want minority physicians to shoulder all the responsibility for working in underserved areas and caring for Medicaid patients.”

Instead, Vichare said special attention needs to be paid to retaining and developing talent within the medical field.

“Our research suggests that Black and Latino family medicine physicians play a critical role in providing health care to people living in marginalized communities. Building a more diverse and representative health care workforce leads to better health care for all and is also necessary from a social justice perspective.” Vichare said.

Vichare continued: “We, as a society, must make sure that those underrepresented in medicine have fair and equal opportunities to pursue medical degrees. It can be essential to support an inclusive culture in healthcare institutions that values ​​diversity and promotes the retention and skilled development of diverse staff.

Despite these comments, Vichare emphasized that each one physicians, not only those from underrepresented backgrounds, need support to thrive while treating their patients.

“For clinicians, recruitment is the first step. This is a very critical step. But we also need to ensure that they invest in retention and development and help all clinicians develop while ensuring fair and equal opportunities. Investments in other workforces can be truly critical, but at the same time they should cover the entire professional continuum,” Vichare said.

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If you have ever had the chance to go to the dentist and be treated by a talented doctor who looks such as you, consider yourself lucky. According to research published in 2020 by American Dental Associationonly 3.8 percent of dentists within the United States are black. The opportunity to go to a dentist of an identical background may also help alleviate the common fears and discomforts that many individuals feel about dental examinations, and most of all, it is time for a change.

Rapper Common helps with this. The Oscar winner is collaborating with a mouthwash brand Listerinewhich has just released its second installment Whoa Collectioncooperation with the creative agency Compound. This 12 months’s edition includes recent colourful bottle packaging illustrations by artists Frank Morrison and Hebru Brantley. Limited edition bottles, available at Targetaim to lift awareness of efforts to supply greater representation in dentistry. There may also be a documentary film by Set Free Richardson Mixtureshedding light on Listerine’s work to cut back this diversity gap. In addition, the brand is donating $150,000 to the inspiration Increasing diversity within the dental pipeline programa nonprofit organization that helps minority elementary school students get what they need, from test prep help to scholarships and more, to satisfy their dreams.

To help with this endeavor, Common has released a brand new, specially created track titled “The art of freshness” that seems like a classic song from the Grammy winner, while also sending a crucial message in regards to the opportunity to see black faces in essential spaces.

During an event at The Compound in Brooklyn on Thursday, September 26, where the song was originally recorded, ESSENCE caught up with Common to learn more about why he was involved with the show, the ability of representation in his life, and in his own life. family and what makes his smile bright – from his dental habits to his form of self-care.

ESSENCE: First, I even have to ask, are you blessed to have a black dentist?

Common: Yes, I’m grateful to have it. I’m very grateful since it’s about having others take care of you, especially someone in your community. It’s a certain kind of understanding and faith and trust that you have got and security. This is one of the problems we would like to spotlight with IDID. I used to be inspired to participate on this campaign since it goals to create more opportunities for black dentists. And I believe that throughout history, we as Black people have felt more confident in reaching out to our own people. In some ways I still use white doctors and non-white doctors, but at the top of the day it’s great to have a black dentist and I believe there must be more of them.

Yes, of course. You’ve already mentioned this, but I desired to ask you from myself: what made you support this initiative to diversify dentistry? Because I do know you have got your foundation, Dream freelyand it’s all about education, opportunity, work and well-being, and that is kind of an amalgamation of what this whole initiative is about. So are you able to dig into this slightly bit more?

Well, I mean, wellness is something that I desired to offer to our communities. The more I learned about it myself, the more I not only lived it and tried to be an example, but I incorporated certain elements into my music. I wrote that I discussed it and it’s something that I would love to lift awareness of and for people to see without making it trivial or simply making it a natural way of life that should be uplifted in our communities because well-being keeps us alive alive . We are in a happier place because of this. It allows us to deal with difficult situations.

The well-being that comes from access to therapy and meditation is like feeling good. You took a while to walk or exercise; all of them work to construct our wholeness, and oral hygiene is a component of that. So once I was approached about this, knowing that it was geared toward Black people for healthier oral health care, I assumed it was essential for me to be a component of it as well since it’s part of the entire picture. That’s one of the things I’ve learned because it involves my development and growing up. It was like, OK, you possibly can’t just be good at maintaining a healthy diet and then not have emotional health, not work at it, and even physical health, not proceed your spirituality. All the weather are needed to get to your full, higher self. I’m definitely completely satisfied to incorporate oral hygiene on this.

How did this effort encourage your song “The Art of Freshness”? I do know what I liked about it’s that although it was created to foster awareness of this work, it still seems like an organic Common track. Gives me Common about . How did it encourage you?

Sometimes it’s nice to create something for a totally different entity. This just isn’t my album, this just isn’t my single that I released as part of the album. So that is great since you say, OK, how do I approach this? It stretches you. And so I used to be inspired to do it. Writing around Fresh was awesome for me because Set Free, who produced the song, was like, “Hey, this music is inspired by Whoa Collection”, Listerine bottles designed by Chicago resident Hebru Brantley and Frank Morrison. So I assumed, oh, I could discuss what freshness is and discuss it from different features. Not only one thing. Dental hygiene is one thing, but staying fresh is how you’re feeling about yourself. It’s the way in which you carry yourself. It’s the way you take care of certain situations. So I wanted to offer it. Sometimes we want theme songs that you just walk around and you possibly can say something, and that is an affirmation.

Love it. What does representation mean to you? For example, you are one of the few MCs to win an Oscar; a really limited number, possibly three of you in total. So what does representation mean to you when you consider all of the work that you just’re doing to diversify dentistry and how essential it’s, as you said earlier, to have our people in these essential roles and spaces?

Representation is incredibly essential. And it was seeing representation in the shape of Muhammad Ali and Maya Angelou that made me realize that I could do something. And it was even a gathering with my teacher, Mr. Brown, a black man who guided me. It was a representation for me, having a black teacher who taught me as a young black man and boy about what this was. So that representation and seeing that influenced my vision of myself. And I all the time say, man, President Barack Obama, not only was he just this beautiful president and did all the pieces in his power to make this country and the world a greater place, but just having representation within the White House modified quite a bit of young people’s visions of themselves. . Heck, even people from our generation and older probably thought, “Wow, I can achieve anything.” We have a black president and we hope to have our first black president.

Speaking of representation and examples of it, your daughter is a lawyer. How proud are you of the trouble she’s put in to get thus far and have the option to represent people and impact other people’s lives?

I’m extremely proud. I’m very proud of her for focusing on this and considering for herself at first of primary school, within the fifth or sixth grade. She replied, “I want to become a lawyer.” And the proven fact that she wished it and achieved it’s only a testament to what is feasible. Watching her make this effort and undergo the ups and downs also shows me her character and determination. I’m proud of her and completely satisfied for her. She finds areas where she will be able to make a big effect on things which can be larger than herself. That’s what I needed to do in music.

Besides taking Listerine and visiting the dentist, what practices do you might want to follow to make sure that your teeth and smile stay healthy in any respect times?

Well, I believe flossing is unquestionably something I learned from my dentist, and now I even have one of the water picks. This thing is useful. But one of the keys to this was flossing and also ensuring I brushed consistently. I believe one of crucial keys to a smile is your heart. Just like who you’re inside. You can see it in your smile, in your eyes, in your laugh and all this stuff. These are some of the things I do most frequently.

Final query: Also, since we talked about good health, what are some practices and things in your life that put a smile on your face?

This doesn’t fall into the wellness category, but I believe it’s wellness since it’s about emotional health. I really like going to the cinema and eating popcorn. I really like popcorn.

My testicles are killing me!

My testicles are killing me, however it’s value it to me. That’s why I even have a water flosser. So that is one of the things I enjoy. I really like watching or playing basketball. I really like listening to great music. I also love just going out to dinner with my family members. These are some of my favorite things to do.

For more information in regards to the Whoa Collection and the Increasing Diversity in Dentistry program, please visit: listerine.com/whoacollection.