The Cost of Delay: State Dental Policies Fail One in Five Children
A 2000 report by the U.S. Surgeon General called dental disease a “silent epidemic.” While dental health has since improved in the United States, children have not benefited at the same rates as adults. An estimated 1 in 5 children go without dental care each year, with low-income, minority and disabled children hit the hardest.
The report describes the severe costs of poor dental health, including lost school time, learning challenges, impaired nutrition and health, worsened job prospects in adulthood and sometimes even death. Its 50-state report card finds that two-thirds of states do not have key policies in place to ensure proper dental health and access to care for children most in need. Only six states earned a grade of an “A,” and 36 states received a “C” or lower.
The authors suggest approaches to ensure dental health and access to care for disadvantaged children, including cost-effective and school-based methods to prevent dental problems, Medicaid improvements to motivate more dentists to treat low-income youth and innovative workforce models to expand the number of qualified dental providers.
The report was produced by the Pew Center on the States with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the DentaQuest Foundation.
