Oral health remains a strategic priority not just for dentists, but for pediatricians as exemplified by the AAP making it one of their key areas of focus. That being said, how well are we doing in ensuring that publicly insured children get the dental care to which they are entitled? Not too well, at least according to a study by Hakim et al. (
doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2800) being released this week. The authors used Medicaid data files to calculate the prevalence of dental care visits in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The likelihood of having any visit in a given year studied (2002-2007) for children on Medicaid ranged from 8% to 48% and never exceeded 50%. The authors further stratify their findings by state in terms of such variables as age, race, type of health plan and other categories; the results suggest the kinds of initiatives and strategies we might use to increase the prevalence rates. Brush up on how much more we all need to do to better these visit numbers by reviewing the findings in this study, and then make sure your own patients are stopping by at least yearly for their oral health maintenance visits.
