Dental Home Prevalence Among Children with Medicaid in the Bronx, New York

Volume 5 - Issue 2

Nadia Laniado*

Received:December 02, 2020;   Published: December 14, 2020

DOI: 10.32474/IPDOAJ.2020.05.000209

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Abstract

The concept of a ‘dental home’ is analogous to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) concept of a ‘medical home.’ The national guidelines of both the AAP and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommend that children have a dental visit by 12 months of age and receive preventive care at regular intervals thereafter [1]. Dental caries remains the most common chronic disease of childhood, and early childhood caries (decay among children less than six years) disproportionately affects children of low socioeconomic status [2]. The establishment of a dental home early in a child’s life is crucial to providing continuous and family-centered preventive dental care and mitigates the consequences of poor oral health such as pain, missed school days, and emergency department visits [3]. In this study we assessed the prevalence of a dental home among children with Medicaid benefits, ages 1-17 years, presenting for their well-child medical visit. To our knowledge, we are unaware of any studies that have presented prevalence estimates for age at dental home establishment among children with Medicaid benefits.

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