The Lion's Pride Volume 9 (January 2018) | Page 53

Americans who could not get the level of health and dental care they
need (Sanders, 2012).
The JAMA article claims there is a large discrepancy “in oral health
and access to care” based on family income around the Federal Poverty
Level (FPL). For example, children between 6-18 years old from lower
income families have fewer dental visits: “only 36% of children from
families at or below the FPL have dental visits compared with 71% from
families with incomes above 400% of the FPL” (Mouradian et al.,
2000). Furthermore “children from… families with incomes below
199% of the FPL are 3 times as likely to have an unmet dental care need
as children from families with incomes above or at 200% of the FPL”
(Mouradian et al., 2000). Having fewer dental visits leads to more dental
problems because routine checkups help prevent tooth decay and other
oral health problems, such as infections, inflammation, or premature loss
of teeth. Additionally, dental visits are opportunities for good dentists to
inform their patients about how their diet affects oral health and to
demonstrate and emphasize the importance of developing beneficial oral
hygiene habits (for example, proper brushing and flossing techniques).
A more recent study in 2012 by the US Senate Subcommittee on
Primary Health and Aging found that similar disparities still existed
nearly 12 years after the JAMA article was published. The subcommittee
cited a Pew study that found “about 17 million low-income children go
each year without basic [dental] care” (Sanders, 2012). Children and