Newsletter
AURORA, Colo., USA: A recently published study has found that poor oral health remains a major problem among American Indians. Research into children of the Navajo Nation, the largest federally recognized tribe in the U.S., has established that the percentage of preschool-aged children with untreated tooth decay in this ethnic group is three to four times higher than in the rest of the U.S. population.
In the study, researchers at the University of Colorado Denver assessed oral health status in 3- to 5-year-old children in the Navajo Nation by obtaining data on the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth, and the prevalence of dental caries. The study included 488 boys and 493 girls.
The researchers found that almost 90 percent had oral diseases and almost 70 percent of the children had untreated tooth decay. Although this number demonstrates that the prevalence of the disease has decreased since 1999, when about 83 percent of the children showed signs of untreated tooth decay, the percentage is still unacceptably high, they concluded. In comparison, the 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported that 16 percent of 2- to 4-year-old white children had untreated tooth decay.
"The number one problem is access to care," said Dr. Terrence Batliner, Associate Clinical Professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, who is also a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The Navajo reservation stretches over 25,000 square miles. According to the researchers, only 22 dental clinics serve over 220,000 residents, resulting in a dentist-to-patient ratio of 32.3 dentists per 100,000 residents.
In order to increase access to dental health care, Batliner advocates the deployment of dental therapists to perform fillings and extractions in addition to preventative services. However, the American Dental Association opposes the use of dental therapists on tribal land, even though such programs have proved to improve the quality of care in tribes in Alaska, he said.
The study, titled "Oral Health Status in Navajo Nation Head Start Children," was published online on June 23 in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry ahead of print.
