A New HRSA Report Examines Children's Oral Health
A new HRSA publication, The Oral Health of Children: A Portrait of States and the Nation 2005, indicates that most children up to age 17 receive annual preventive dental care and have excellent or very good oral health, and that few go without needed care.
But the report found room for improvement in preventive oral health care among young children (ages 1 to 5) and children of families with lower incomes.
Key findings state that:
72 percent of children, according to surveyed parents, had a preventive dental visit in the past year.
93 percent of children received all necessary dental care in the past year, parents said.
90.5 percent of children have teeth in excellent, very good or good condition - 68.5 percent with teeth in excellent or very good condition and 21.9 percent in good condition. Seventy-seven percent of young children (ages 1 to 5 years) have teeth reported to be in excellent or very good condition compared to only 61.8 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds and 67.5 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds.
Other findings indicate that:
Younger children are less likely to receive preventive dental care than school-aged children. Only 10.1 percent of 1-year-olds and fewer than a quarter (23.8) of 2-year-olds received a preventive dental visit in the past year, despite the recommendation that all children see a dentist by age 1.
Parents of 88.9 percent of children who did not see a dentist in the past year did not believe that their children needed a preventive dental visit, indicating a need for oral health education among parents.
Dental care rises steadily with increased income. Only 58.1 percent of children with family incomes below 100 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) received care in the past year, compared to 82.4 percent of children in families with incomes of 400 percent FPL and above.
Oral health is vital to the overall health and well-being of children. Left untreated, pain and infection caused by tooth decay can lead to problems in eating, speaking and learning. Tooth decay or dental caries, the most common chronic childhood disease, is five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever in U.S. children.
The Oral Health of Children, second in a series of overviews based on the National Survey of Children's Health, examines national and state-level data and includes breakdowns by ethnic and racial group. Parents of 102,353 children ages 0-17 participated in the 2003-04 survey, supported by HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau and conducted by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
If you would like a hard copy of this report, please contact Steph Toomer at stoomer@hrsa.gov.