SDM Partners with Delta Dental for Oral Health Survey
Led by Michelle Henshaw, SDM participated in a statewide study that finds racial and economic disparities in dental care
Michelle Henshaw, assistant dean for community partnerships and extramural affairs and an associate professor at the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, helped organize Boston University’s participation in the commonwealth’s Oral Health Advocacy Taskforce survey. The survey results, which show significant racial and economic disparities in children’s dental care, were announced at the Massachusetts State House on January 24.
The survey, sponsored by the insurance company Delta Dental of Massachusetts, included data collected from approximately 6,000 children at SDM over the last year. The findings showed that, overall, dental hygiene has improved since the last statewide oral health survey, in 2003: the percentage of third-grade children with dental disease declined from 48 percent to 41 percent, and the percentage of children with untreated decay declined from 26 percent to 17 percent.
But the report also revealed that children from low-income families — classified as such based on their eligibility for free or reduced-price lunches — showed signs of tooth decay at approximately twice the rate of those from higher-income families and that 24 percent of Hispanics and 23 percent of black kindergartners had untreated cavities, about twice the rate of white, non-Hispanic kindergarteners.
Henshaw says that tooth decay is largely preventable and that the survey will help identify areas where new education and outreach efforts are necessary. “We are going to be able to target interventions to those communities that have the greatest need,” she says.
Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.
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