The Importance of Dental Health Care for Children

Tooth decay in children is an even more often occurring health condition than asthma.

Because of dental issues, every year children skip 52 million hours from school. If the problem is left untreated, children will develop further health problems:

• Inability to perform well in school – they cannot learn because of the persisting pain
• Sleeping issues
• Growing problems
• Eating disorder related health issues

Having a look at numbers on a nationwide level, it is noted that 30% to 50% of children between 4 and 5 years old already struggle with tooth decay.

More and more children are developing toothy decay and especially children from low income families are mostly predisposed to this health condition.

There are several factors that stand in the way of proper dental health care of these children:

• Early dental care is very important, and parents fail to acknowledge that. This is partly so because of lack of proper information, and partly negligence from the side of the parent. Children should see the dentist starting from the first year of their life, with checkups and cleanings being performed every six months. Taking the child to the dentist only when they feel pain is a wrong habit.
• Contact information that is out of date. The routine dental appointments are being scheduled even months in advance. Hence, when the family changes address or phone number, they are not being reminded by letters or calls to respect the appointment. Several appointments missed means that the child might easily develop complex dental health issues that also need complex treatments.
• Dental care cost is too expensive for children in the age group 19 to 21. Children with special needs are being covered by the Medicaid system, but after that age individuals must pay out of pocket for private insurance. Since the fees are quite expensive, a lot of them remain without insurance. Adult dental benefits are provided only for blind persons, pregnant women or for people who are under special care in nursing homes.

If you are a parent it is very important to understand that you should take your child to regular dental visits starting with their first year.

That will help you to avoid complex dental health issues on the long run.