One in Four Children Living in California Have not been to a Dentist
I found this new study called “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Dental Care for Publicly Insured Children” to be quite discouraging which recently appeared in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs. The study says 25% of children in the state of California (U.S.) have never seen a dentist. It also goes on to address disparities which exist across type of insurance coverage, ethnicity, and race. This is not good news as lack of dental care can of course cause children to have to miss school for treatment. The study looks at California kids who are age 11 and under and uses data from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey which contains over 10,000 children. So of course this is slightly dated data that was used. Some highlights on the study include African American and Latino American children with … Read more