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Children's Dental Health Needs and School-Based Services: A Fact Sheet 

The Need

  • Tooth decay (or dental caries) is one of the most common chronic childhood diseases 5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever.1

  • Children living in poverty suffer twice as much tooth decay as their more affluent peers, and their disease is more likely to be untreated.1

  • Fluoridation is the most effective way to prevent dental carries but more than 100 million Americans do not have an optimally fluoridated water supply.2

  • Over 80 percent of tooth decay in school children is on chewing surfaces of teeth that dental sealants can protect but only 18.5 percent of children and adolescents have at least one sealed permanent tooth.2

  • 25 percent of children living in poverty have not seen a dentist before entering kindergarten.1

  • One in five Medicaid eligible children received preventive dental services in 1993. 3

  • 23 million children are without dental insurance coverage. Uninsured children are 2.5 times less likely than insured children to receive dental care.1, 7

The Schools

  • More than 51 million school hours are lost each year to dental-related illness.1

  • Children living in poverty suffer nearly 12 times more restricted-activity days than children from higher-income families.1

  • 34 percent of schools identify or refer for dental problems.4

  • According to CDC, school-based dental sealant programs could increase the prevalence of dental sealants and reduce or eliminate racial and income disparities among children with sealants.5

  • Over half of school-based health centers screen children for dental problems. A smaller number of these centers offer dental care and sealants.6
Racial Disparities in Untreated Tooth Decay Permanent Teeth,
Children Ages 5-17 

 
Source: Edelstein, B. Racial and Income Disparities in Pediatric Oral Health. Children's Dental Health Project. http://www.childent.org/Publications/Racial&Income.htm. Accessed 1/23/02.

Racial Disparities in Untreated Tooth Decay in
Permanent Teeth by Income for Adolescents Ages 12-17


Source: Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2000.

References

  1. US DHHS. Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institute of Health, 2000.

  2. National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health. Trends Children’s Oral Health. Arlington, VA, 1999.

  3. US DHHS, OIG. Children’s Dental Services Under Medicaid: Access and Utilization. OEI-09-93-00240. April 1996.

  4. School Health Policies and Programs Study: A Summary Report. Journal of School Health, Vol. 7, No. 7, 2000.

  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Impact of Targeted, School-Based Dental Sealant Programs in Reducing Racial and Economic Disparities in Sealant Prevalence Among Schoolchildren — Ohio, 1998-1999. MMWR. 2001;45(34);736-8.

  6. National Assembly on School- Based Health Care. Creating Access to Care for Children and Youth: School-Based Health Center Census 1998-1999. June 2000.

  7. Grantmakers in Health. Filling the Gap: Strategies for Improving Oral Health. Washington, DC. 2001.