The Kids Program

In the spring of 2003 the office of the surgeon general declared a national call to action to promote oral health. His office had found, in a report begun in 2000, “not all Americans oral health has benefited equally from our advancements in science and technology”.  Some of us have seen advancement in quality of life, others have not.  The report, in fact, states there is no less than a “silent epidemic of oral diseases affecting our most vulnerable citizens – poor children and the elderly.”  The following are highlights of oral health data in the report for children.

- Dental caries (tooth decay) is the single most common chronic childhood disease 5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever.

- Over 50 percent of 5- to 9-year-old children have at least one cavity or filling, and that proportion increases to 78 percent among 17-year-olds.

- There are striking disparities in dental disease by income.  Poor children suffer twice as much dental caries as their more affluent peers, and their disease is more likely to be untreated.  These poor-nonpoor differences continue into adolescence.  One out of four children in America is born into poverty, and children living below the poverty line (annual income of $17,000 for a single family of four) have more severe and untreated decay.

- Professional care is necessary for maintaining oral health, yet 25 percent of poor children have not seen a dentist before entering kindergarten

- Medical insurance is a strong predictor of access to dental care.  Uninsured children are 2.5 times less likely than insured children to receive dental care.  Children from families without dental insurance are 3 times more likely to have dental needs than children with either public or private insurance.  For each child without medical insurance, there are at least 2.6 children without dental insurance.

- Medicaid has not been able to fill the gap in providing dental care to poor children.  Fewer than one in five Medicaid-covered children received a single dental visit in a recent year-long study period.  Although new programs such as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) may increase the number of insured children, many will still be left without effective dental coverage.

- The social impact of oral diseases in children is substantial.  More than 51 million school hours are lost each year to dental-related illness.  Poor children suffer nearly 12 times more restricted-activity days than children from higher-income families.  Pain and suffering due to untreated diseases can lead to problems in eating, speaking, and attending to learning.