US: Children’s oral health disparities persist despite equal dental care access

The study was released in Health Affairs’ December issue and was discussed by Jaffer Shariff, co-author of the study, at a Washington DC health policy briefing on December 7. 

“If poor and low income children now enjoy equal access to dental care but do not have equal oral health, then the remedy should focus more tightly on the day to day factors that put them at higher risk for dental problems,” said lead author Burton Edelstein. “Low income families often face income, housing, employment and food insecurities that constrain their ability to engage in healthy eating and oral hygiene practices,” he noted. 

The study considered data from the 2011/2012 National Survey of Children’s Health, which included parent reports of oral health and the use of dental care for 79,815 children and adolescents (age one to 17 years) of all social strata. No differences were found between Medicaid insured and commercially insured children in the odds of their having a dental visit, preventive or otherwise. However, parents of children enrolled in Medicaid were 25 percent more likely to report that their child did not have an ‘excellent or very good’ dental condition and were 21 percent more likely to report that their child had a dental problem within the last year than were parents of commercially insured children.