Kimon Divaris|Jessica Y. Lee|A. Diane Baker|Ziya Gizlice|R. Gary Rozier|Darren A. DeWalt|William F. Vann
Influence of Caregivers and Children’s Entry Into the Dental Care System
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
objectives early preventive dental visits essential improving childrens oral health especially young children high risk dental caries however scant information children enter dental care system objectives follows 1 describe populationbased cohort young medicaidenrolled children entered dental care 2 investigate influence caregiver characteristics childrens dental careseeking patterns methods relied medicaid claims interview data caregiverchild dyads enrolled carolina oral health literacy study 20072008 analytical cohort comprised 1000 children dental visits enrollment additional information collected sociodemographic characteristics oral health status health literacy dental neglect access care barriers analyses relied descriptive bivariate multivariate methods results 25month median followup period 39 children mean baseline age 16 months entered dental care system 13 first encounters emergency care caregivers dental neglect emerged significant predictor nonentrance children reported oral health problems baseline likely enter dental care system compared children better oral health also likely require emergency care conclusions caregivers pivotal role childrens oral health care interventions aimed improving childrens oral health involve community outreach engage caregivers culturally appropriate manner children infants toddlers