Oral Health Status of Children Attending a Mobile Dental Clinic-A Comparative Study
Enciso, Reyes; Sundaresan, Santosh; Yekikian, Matthew; Mulligan, Roseann
Why this matters
Mobile dental programs often cannot see children as often as guidelines recommend, which raises the question of whether longer intervals still help. Among 78 children seen twice a mean of 1.5 years apart, decay rates were significantly lower than in matched first-time attendees and lower than at their own first visit.
Abstract
Periodicity of dental visits for children is based on age and disease susceptibility. Frequently mobile dental clinics are unable to provide follow-up care at recommended intervals. This study compared the oral health of children attending the mobile clinic (MC) twice with matched children by age, gender, race, and ZIP code attending for the first time. Dental charts (n=888) were reviewed and scored for decayed and filled surfaces. Seventy-eight children (mean age 9.6 years; 98.7% Hispanic) attended the clinic twice over a mean interval between visits of 1.5 years. These children had statistically significant lower rates of decay in deciduous and permanent tooth surfaces than matched children visiting the clinic for the first time (p<.05; p<.001), and significantly less decay in their deciduous and permanent teeth than at the first visit (p<.001; p<.05). Mobile clinics can be effective in decreasing the decay in teeth, even when the interval between visits is longer than current recommendations.