Study Reveals Gaps in Dental Care for Youths

ATLANTA —  About half the children surveyed in Oregon have cavities in their teeth, and that shows that states must do more to provide dental care for young people, health officials said Friday.

“In spite of all our progress, dental disease persists in children,” said Dolores Malvitz of the Division of Oral Health at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Some groups of children still have large amounts of dental decay that remains untreated.”

The 1991-92 study of 2,872 Oregon children ages 3 to 12 also found that Native Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos had a much higher prevalence of dental disease than Anglos.

Among children ages 6 to 8, for example, an average of 55% had tooth decay in their primary or permanent teeth, according to the study.

A breakdown shows that 52% of Anglo children in the age group had tooth decay, but the numbers were significantly higher for other groups: Native American, 91%; Asian American, 67%; Latino, 65%; black, 64%.

The goal of federal health officials is to reduce the number of children with tooth decay to 35% by the year 2000.

“It could be that they’re not receiving preventive measures early enough, or it may mean that they do not have access to care,” Malvitz said. “Unfortunately, it’s those without access to preventive measures who have the disease, then the disease is not treated.”

For children who don’t have access to a private dentist or who can’t afford one, states need to provide dental care through community health programs or through schools, the CDC said.

Fluoridated water also helps, but only 25% of Oregonians receive fluoridated water, Malvitz said. Nationally, 62% of the people connected to public water systems have fluoridated water.