Brushing away oral health disparities in America ' s rural children

This article may influence policy decisions in the near future. "To understand oral health discrepancies between rural and urban children, the investigators used data from the 2017-2018 National Survey of Children ' s Health, a nationally representative sample of children from the U.S. Along with collecting information about geographic location, family income, oral health condition, family structure and race, the survey asked about access to oral health care: Had a participant ' s child received oral health care? Did the child regularly see a health care provider for preventive care such as checkups and dental cleanings?The investigators found that rural children were less likely to have had a preventive dental visit than urban children. Furthermore, compared with urban kids, they were less likely to receive fluoride treatments or dental sealants, and their teeth were in poorer condition." It ' s really important for researchers to examine access, utilization and outcomes among racial ethnic minorities and vulnerable populations living in rural areas, " said Crouch. " Unless we quantify these differences, there ' s no way to know what kinds of policies that we need to be advocating for. "Additionally, children who were uninsured or had caregivers with a high school education or less were less likely to have had preventive dental visits. These finding suggest that to improve preventive care in kids, policies should focus on increasing family income or dental insurance coverage...
Source: Dental Technology Blog - Category: Dentistry Source Type: news