Children's tooth decay in a public health program to encourage low-income pregnant women to utilize dental care

• Main Authors: Shirtcliff R Mike (Author), Sutherland Marilynn (Author), Milgrom Peter (Author), Ludwig Sharity (Author), Smolen Darlene (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: BMC, 2010-02-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A community-based public health program to provide a dental home for women covered by the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) in Klamath County, Oregon USA was instituted with the long-term goal to promote preventive oral care for both mothers and their new infants provided by dental managed care companies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>As part of the evaluation of the program, children in Klamath and comparable non-program counties were examined in their 2^ndyear of life to begin to determine if benefits accrued to the offspring of the mothers in Klamath County.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eighty-five and 58.9% of the children were caries free in the Klamath and comparison county samples, respectively (RR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.13, 1.93). The mean (SD) number of teeth with any decay was .75 (2.5) in the test population and 1.6 (2.5) in the comparison population (t = 2.08, p = .04).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The assessment showed that children of mothers in the Klamath County program were about one and a half times more likely to be caries free than children in the comparison counties. Additional controlled studies are being undertaken.</p>

Item Description

10.1186/1471-2458-10-76
1471-2458