JADA Study Shows Impact of Dental Benefits on Meeting Children's Dental Needs

A report in the February issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) shows that dental benefits play a significant role in meeting the dental needs of children, including checkups and treatments. The study is particularly timely as February is National Children’s Dental Health Month.

The report finds U.S. children enrolled in private or public dental care plans were more likely to receive dental care than children who did not have coverage from 1997 to 2014. The study also showed that unmet dental needs of children who were enrolled in a dental care plan, private or public, steadily decreased from 2009 to 2014.

“The number of uninsured children decreased by 58 percent from 1997 to 2014 with a significant shift from private to public insurance coverage,” stated authors Maryam Amin, D.M.D., M.S.c., Ph.D., Maryam Elyasi, D.D.S., and...