Pediatric medical providers can improve young children’s oral health, study says

Heather Beil

Dr. Gary Rozier

Heather Beil, MPH, doctoral student, and Gary Rozier, DDS, MPH, professor, both in the School’s Department of Health Policy and Management, are co-authors of the study, published in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers sampled 5,268 children, aged 2 to 11 years, to determine whether a pediatrician or other medical health care provider had recommended that a child be seen by a dentist and whether the child actually had a dental visit.

The most significant finding was in the group of two- to five-year-olds (n=2,031), in which 47 percent of the patients were advised to have a dental check-up, and 39 percent did.

“We found that parents of young children who were advised to see a dentist were almost three times more likely to visit the dentist,” Beil said.

“Because of their frequent contact with parents of young children during well-child visits, pediatricians and family physicians can play a major role in increasing access to dental care for young children.”

Beil said that even though tooth decay is the most common chronic disease of childhood and is largely preventable, preventive dental care is rare among young children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other professional organizations recommend that all children be advised to visit a dentist by their first birthday. Beil said that the findings indicate that more research is warranted to identify strategies to increase physician awareness and adherence to the Academy’s guidelines.

The study also found that children whose parents were regular users of dental care were more likely to have been advised to see the dentist in the previous year. The strongest predictor of whether a child was advised to see the dentist was whether the child had a regular source of medical care, a fact that emphasizes the importance of children receiving scheduled routine medical care.