A survey was administered to 55 homeless adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 28 years who presented for care at a community health center in Seattle, Washington in 2005. Forty-five valid surveys were analyzed. The aim of the study was to identify factors associated with self-reported oral health. The most common self-reported dental problem was sensitive teeth (52.6%), followed by discolored teeth (48.6%), toothache (38.5%), or a broken tooth (37.8%). Dental problems were associated with lower self-reported oral health, while non-high school graduates, mixed race youths, and methamphetamine users had significantly higher self-reported oral health. Among homeless youths, addressing dental problems with direct dental care may improve self-perceived oral health. The relationships between methamphetamine use and education level, on the one hand, and self-reported oral health, on the other, are complex and may be modified by age.

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Purpose This hypothesis-generating study sought to identify potential determinants of dental care use and oral health among children living in foster care. Method Using a grounded theory approach, fourteen key informant interviews were conducted among health and social services professionals experienced with children in foster care and families in western Washington State. Results The identified potential determinants of oral health and dental use among children living in foster care included: (1) linguistic and cultural barriers; (2) lack of dentists willing to accept children's Medicaid dental insurance; (3) lack of resources available to case workers (i.e. large caseload burden) (4) lack of federal funding for specialized dental care; (5) lack of systematic health record-keeping; (6) child transience, leading to the lack of a dental home; (8) foster parents' competing needs; (7) child behavior problems; and (9) lack of dental ‘buy in’ from adolescents. Conclusion Additional studies are needed to determine whether children living in foster care achieve oral health, and the extent of their unmet dental need.

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The results of this study can be used by researchers to develop chairside strategies to help dentists identify and manage fluoride refusal behaviors in clinical settings. This could help preserve topical fluoride as an evidencebased preventive therapy and address a growing public health problem.

The objective was to evaluate 2 primary molar sealant strategies for publicly insured children using an "expected value of perfect information" (EVPI) approach. We converted a 10,000-observation tooth-level cost-effectiveness simulation model comparing 2 primary molar sealant strategiesalways seal (AS) and standard care (SC) -with a 1,250-observation child-level model. Costs per child per restoration or extraction averted were estimated. Opportunity losses under the AS strategy were determined for children for whom SC was the optimal choice. We determined the EVPI by multiplying mean opportunity losses by the projected incident population of publicly insured 3-year-olds in the US over 10 years with costs discounted at 2%. All analyses were conducted under assumptions of high and low intrachild correlations between at-risk teeth. The AS strategy cost $43.68 over SC (95% CI: -$5.50, $92.86) per child per restoration or extraction averted under the high intrachild correlation assumption and $15.54 (95% CI $7.86, $23.20) under the low intrachild correlation. Under high intrachild correlation, mean opportunity losses were $80.28 (95% CI: $76.39, $84.17) per child, and AS was the optimal strategy in 31% of children. Under low correlation, mean opportunity losses were $14.61 (95% CI: $12.20, $17.68) and AS was the optimal strategy in 87% of children. The EVPI was calculated at $530,813,740 and $96,578,389 (for high and low intrachild correlation, respectively), for a projected total incident population of 8,059,712 children. On average, always sealing primary molars is more effective than standard care, but widespread implementation of this preventive approach among publicly insured children would result in large opportunity losses. Additional research is needed to identify the subgroups of publicly insured children who would benefit the most from this effective and potentially cost-saving public health intervention.

Despite the concerted efforts of research and professional and advocacy stakeholders, recent evidence suggests that improvements in the oral health of young children in the United States has not followed the prevailing trend of oral health improvement in other age groups. In fact, oral health disparities in the youngest children may be widening, yet efforts to translate advances in science and technology into meaningful improvements in populations’ health have had limited success. Nevertheless, the great strides in genomics, biological, behavioral, social, and health services research in the past decade have strengthened the evidence base available to support initiatives and translational efforts. Concerted actions to accelerate this translation and implementation process are warranted; at the same time, policies that can help tackle the upstream determinants of oral health disparities are imperative. This article summarizes the proceedings from the symposium on the interdisciplinary continuum of pediatric oral health that was held during the 43rd annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. This report showcases the latest contributions across the interdisciplinary continuum of pediatric oral health research and provides insights into future research priorities and necessary intersectoral synergies. Issues are discussed as related to the overwhelming dominance of social determinants on oral disease and the difficulty of translating science into action.

Investigators have examined children's dental utilization in various settings (e.g., dental offices, emergency departments, operating rooms), but no studies have examined inpatient hospitalizations for non-traumatic dental conditions (NTDCs). The authors examined NTDC-related hospitalization trends in the United States and identified the relationship between complex chronic condition (CCCs) and NTDC-related inpatient hospitalizations. We analyzed data from the U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2000-2010) for children ages 3 to 17 years (N = 3,030,970). The predictor variable was number of CCCs (0/1/2+). The outcome variable was whether the child had a NTDC-related hospitalization (no/yes). Covariate-adjusted multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate prevalence odds ratios (PORs). From 2000 to 2010, there were 17,993 NTDC-related hospitalizations (0.59%) and a slight increase in NTDC-related hospitalizations (p = .049). This increase was not significant in the final regression model. There was no difference in odds of NTDCs for children with 0 or 1 CCCs (POR = 1.08; 95%CI = 0.99, 1.18), but children with 2+ CCCs had significantly greater odds (POR = 1.61; 95%CI = 1.42, 1.83), as did non-White, publicly insured, and lower income children. NTDC-related hospitalizations for children did not increase from 2000 to 2010. Children with 2+ CCCs had the greatest odds of being hospitalized for NTDCs, which highlights the need to develop preventive interventions targeting children with 2+ CCCs.