Trends in dental caries in children and adolescents according to poverty status in the United States from 1999 through 2004 and 2011 through 2014

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by Paul Hellyer.

Abstract

Study shows an improving trend in child dental health in the USA and indicates that targeted interventions may be successful.

Main

Dye BA, Mitnik GL, Iafolla TJ, Vargas CM. J Am Dent Assoc 2017;148: 550–565

Using data from the US National Health and Nutrition Surveys, the authors evaluated the change in prevalence of dental caries in young people aged 2 to 19. The data showed that, while there was little change in the prevalence of caries in the older cohorts, in pre-school children from poorer backgrounds, caries experience decreased from 42% to 35% and that untreated caries decreased from 31% to 18%.

The authors report that this decline in caries experience in 2–5-year-olds is paralleled by the suggestion of other investigators that obesity may also be declining in this age/poverty cohort. The reasons for this remain unclear, but may be linked to low income families being enrolled in nutrition education programmes and the extension of insurance plans to those on low incomes. Dental initiatives include introducing the concept of a 'dental home' by encouraging visits to the dentist for children from the age of one and additional reimbursements for dental screenings and preventive interventions, such as the applications of fluoride varnish.