Oral health status and access to dental care for Ohio Head Start children

Purpose: The purpose of this survey were to assess the dental caries prevalence rate among children enrolled in Ohio's Head Start programs and assess factors relating to their dental care access. Methods: Oral screenings were conducted on 2,555 children, ages 3 through 5 years, at 50 Ohio Head Start centers using probability-proportional-to-size sampling. In addition, parental responses to 6 access-oriented questions on the consent form were analyzed. Results: Overall, 38% of 3- to 5-year-old Head Start children screened had experienced dental caries, and 28% had at least 1 untreated decayed tooth. Of the children with caries experience, 73% had decayed teeth, while the remaining 27% had restorations only. Among children, there were no statistically significant differences associated with race or payment method. With regard to dental care access, 11% of Head Start parents reported they could not get wanted dental care for their children during the previous 12 months, most often due to cost of care/lack of insurance. Nine percent of children had a toothache in the previous 6 months. Although 85% of Head Start children had visited a dentist in the previous 12 months, another 10% had never visited a dentist. Conclusions: The significant prevalence rate of dental caries among Ohio Head Start children is consistent with other states' reports. Although almost 9 of 10 children visited a dentist during the year, three fourths of children with dental caries did not have their care completed by the time they were screened during the second half of the school year. Oral health disparities according to race and payment source were not found among Ohio Head Start children.