Question:
Dental Health Is Fundamental for All Children ?
Answer:
In 2000, in a report on Oral Health in America, U.S. Surgeon General
David Satcher noted "profound and consequential disparities in the
oral health of our citizens...Dental disease restricts activities in
school, work, and home, and often significantly diminishes the quality
of life." Indeed, attention to personal dental hygiene should begin
with the eruption of the first "baby tooth," and all children should
have access to preventive and, if necessary, restorative dental
services.
When children are first placed in foster care, they are particularly
likely not to have received preventive and professional dental care.
CWLA's checklist of 16 services needed for children in foster care
(www.cwla.org/programs/health/checklist.htm) includes "comprehensive
dental services...restoration of teeth, and maintenance of dental
health....ongoing primary and preventive health care services,
including reassessments at a minimum every six months; and access to
appropriate specialty and subspecialty care."
Medicaid is federally mandated to cover children's dental services,
but delivering those services to children remains problematic. Only
21% of Medicaid-eligible children saw a dentist in 1997. Children's
Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) seeks to extend medical and dental
services to as many as 10 million children whose family incomes exceed
Medicaid eligibility but who cannot afford private health insurance.
For information on how to enroll a child in CHIP go to
www.insurekidsnow.gov.
This month, a study was published that assessed the dental health
outcomes of 15,438 children in North Carolina who were enrolled in
Medicaid from 1988 to 1994. Of these children, 23% received at least
one sealant, and 33% received at least one filling. Sealant placement
was associated with expenditure savings to Medicaid. Thus,
Medicaid-and more broadly, society-will benefit by providing for
sealant placement in these children. (See J. A. Weintraub, S. C.
Stearns, R. G. Rozier, and C.-C. Huang. [2001]. Treatment outcomes and
costs of dental sealants among children enrolled in Medicaid. American
Journal of Public Health; available online at http://www.ajph.org.
Select November 2001, Volume 91, Number 11, click on "public health
then and now;" then scroll to pages 1877-1881.)
According to the American Dental Association (ADA website
(www.ada.org) basic preventive and restorative dental services are
within economic reach of most Americans, through insurance coverage
and government programs such as Medicaid. The ADA notes that each year
dentists provide $1 billion in free and discounted dentistry to needy
patients. For too many, however, access to care remains difficult.
(For more information, go to the website, click on Government and
Advocacy, go to Dentistry Works, then click on Access to Oral Health
Care. On the same page, a link to the Indian Health Service website
notes that only 25% of Native Americans receive dental care today
compared to 33% 10 years ago.) For many more topics, go to
www.ada.org/public, click on Oral Health Topics, and choose from the
alphabetical listing or the category listing (e.g., Children, the Kids
Section).
HRSA-HCFA Oral Health Initiative
(www.hrsa.gov/oralhealth/resources.htm) has many links to other
websites-such as those of the National Oral Health Resource Center,
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, Rural Information Center
Health Services such as the National Oral Health Resource Center,
American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, Rural Information Center
Health Services-providing data, research, and information on
professional groups and other organizations.
Extensive resources on oral health in children, as well as links to
other organizations, publications, databases, newsletters, and
research reports, are available through the Knowledge Path on Oral
Health and Children (www.ncemch.org/RefDes/kporalhealth.html)
developed by the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child
Health at Georgetown University.
What age should a child first visit the dentist then? I've heard that as
soon as they have six teeth, they should go, from other sources I've heard
that you shouldn't take them until they're about 3 years old. My son is ten
months old, getting three new teeth at once, which will bring his total up
to seven when they're all through. I can't imagine him letting a complete
stanger looking into his mouth, most of the time, he won't even let ME look,
and he knows me!
