Oral health is associated with other chronic diseases, making these disparities especially important to consider.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. About half of patients with some college education reported a dentist visit in the past year; however, only 17.5 percent of patients who had not finished high school did.
2. Patients who did not complete high school are three times more likely to have destructive periodontal disease than their college-educated counterparts.
3. More than half, 55.5 percent, of patients above the 400 percent poverty threshold reported a dentist visit in the past year; however, only 27.6 percent of patients with incomes below the federal poverty line did.
4. More than half, 50.6, percent of patients with private health insurance coverage reported a dentist visit in the past year; however, only 31.4 percent of patients with public insurance did. Only 19.2 percent of uninsured patients reported visiting a dentist in the past year.
5. There are significant racial disparities in dental diagnosis, too: for example, black, Native American and Alaskan Native patients are three times more likely to have untreated tooth decay than their white counterparts.
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