Improving Arkansas Children’s Oral Health: Healthy Mouths Make for a Healthy Start

Author(s): Richard Sheward, MPP Deputy Director of Innovative Partnerships, Children’s HealthWatch; Catherine Hayes, SM, DMD, DMSc, Clinical Professor Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research, Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine; Amlan Pankaj, Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine; Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, MPH, Executive Director, Children’s HealthWatch; Sharon Coleman, MS, MPH, Research Manager, Biostatistics and Epidemiology Data Analytics Center, Boston University School of Public Health, and Eduardo Ochoa, Jr., MD, Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch
Published in: Children’s HealthWatch

 

The research presented here demonstrates that young children in Arkansas who face significant barriers to receiving routine preventive dental care are at increased risk of fair or poor oral health, and consequently, costly medical services, including hospitalizations. Ensuring that children and families get connected to an oral health home in infancy and toddlerhood is essential to improving the health of Arkansas children.

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