Significant Findings...Detroit Dental Health Project

Children

  • Tooth decay is highly prevalent. By age 2, 20% of children had early childhood tooth decay.
  • Consumption of soda beverages was associated with developing severe early childhood tooth decay.

Caregivers

  • Over 90% of adults (ages 14-70) had at least one early tooth decay (precavity) lesion, and 82% had at least one cavity.
  • Cavities presence was directly associated with age, poorer oral hygiene status, being worried about teeth, a recent visit to the dentist, and the number of grocery stores in neighborhoods.
  • The number of cavities was inversely associated with preventive health care, positive ratings of oral health, and the number of dentists in a community.

Dental Insurance

  • Children whose caregiver visited a dentist for preventive care were five times more likely to have visited a dentist for the same kind of care compared to children whose caregiver did not have such visits.

Foods and Drinks

  • Among adults, the frequency of soft drink consumption and the presence of gingival pla que d ep os i t s were significantly associated with tooth decay.
  • Adults obtained 47% of their total calories from carbohydrates. Fifteen percent of their caloric intake came from added sugars.
  • Only 7.4% of adults reported eating two or more servings of vegetables daily and only 7.8% of adults reported eating two or more servings of fruit per day.
  • Among adults, potato chips were the third most commonly consumed item after tap water and sugared soda.

Other Important Findings

  • Three-quarters of caregivers were either overweight or obese.
  • Fifty-nine percent of men (5% of the caregivers) and 41% of women were smokers.
  • Mother’s oral hygiene knowledge was signif-icantly and positively associated with frequent brushing.
  • From 2000 to 2006, 77.6% of Medicaid enrolled children in the DDHP project visited a dentist at least once.
  • Of 12,000 procedures performed, the most fre-quently provided services to children were diagnostic (47.6%), preventive (36.1%), and restorative (13.1%).

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