Thursday, February 03, 2011

Center to Address Disparities in Children's Oral Health Counters Early Childhood Caries Trend | www.ucsf.edu

Center to Address Disparities in Children's Oral Health Counters Early Childhood Caries Trend | www.ucsf.edu:

"With advances in dental practice, kids today are getting fewer cavities, right?

Not true, unfortunately. Tooth decay among the youngest children is on the rise, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Poor and minority populations have been burdened disproportionately."

"Weintraub initially teamed up with fellow School of Dentistry faculty members Stuart Gansky, DrPH, a biostatistician, and Francisco Ramos-Gomez, DDS, MPH, a pediatric dentist who grew alarmed when he saw a steady stream of kids with cavities at the UCSF-run family dental clinic at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH)." San Francisco is fluoridated.

"In the rural area, dentists were few and far between; the closest pediatric dentists were in Fresno, about 50 miles away. Furthermore, dentists in both rural and urban areas often were unwilling to treat children less than 6 years old, largely because they had never rotated through a pediatrics clinic during their training, and they felt unprepared as a consequence.

Moreover, many dentists did not accept Medicaid (Denti-Cal) payment. Those who did had long waiting lists. Children from low-income families often waited months for screening or treatment."