Dentist Supply and Children's Oral Health in the United States

Objectives: We evaluated the relationship between dentist supply and children's oral health and explored heterogeneity by children's age and urbanicity.

Methods: We obtained data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (>27,000 children aged 1-10 years; >23,000 children aged 11-17 years). We estimated the association between state-level dentist supply and multiple measures of children's oral health using regression analysis adjusting for several child, family, and population-level characteristics.

Results: Dentist supply was significantly related to better oral health outcomes among children aged 1 to 10 years. The odds of decay and bleeding gums were lower by more than 50% (odds ratio [OR]=0.46; 95% CI=0.23, 0.95) and 80% (OR=0.18; 95% CI=0.05, 0.76), respectively, with an additional dentist per 1000 population. The odds of a worse maternal rating of child's dental health on a 5-category scale from poor to excellent were lower by about 50% in this age group with an additional dentist per 1000 population (OR=0.51; 95% CI=0.29, 0.91). We observed associations only for children in urban settings.

Conclusions: Dentist supply is associated with improved oral health for younger children in urban settings.