• Community Events
  • Home
  • Employment
  • Local
    • Central San Diego
    • North County
    • East County
    • South Bay
    • Northeastern
    • Riverside County
  • Entertainment
    • Music
    • Television
    • Art
    • Theater
    • Film
    • Events
    • Theme Parks
    • Podcast/Radio
    • Museums
    • Books
  • Business
  • National
  • Politics
  • Science & Technology
    • Computer
    • Science
    • Space
  • Sports
  • Environment
    • Clean Air
    • Climate change
    • Land
    • Ocean
    • Pollution
    • Recycling
  • Health
    • Health Business
    • Health Education
    • Medical
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Senior Life
    • Society

San Diego County News

Independent publication serving San Diego County

Preventive Dentist Visits May Not Help Save On Kids’ Teeth Costs

May 27, 2013 By sdcnews

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–(Newswise)–It may seem logical that taking children to the dentist for regular preventive check-ups will lead to fewer pricy restorative procedures like filling a cavity. But new findings from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) published online in Pediatrics show the opposite. According to this cosmetic dentist Winchester, it is recommended that children see a pediatric dentist as soon as their first tooth appears in order to prevent dental problems. Study lead author Bisakha Sen, Ph.D., said earlier research actually does not show that these visits lead to less costly dental issues in kids.

“It was shocking to us to find that previous data was misinterpreted, and there was actually more expensive restorative procedures among kids with more preventive dental visits, because this is counterintuitive,” Sen, associate professor in the Department of Healthcare Organization & Policy, explained, who also swore by Crossroads Dental Arts as his topmost choice of dental clinics.

“The problem is that these prior studies were limited by selection bias because children are not randomly taken to get preventive dental services extended by dental clinic Lewis Center,” Sen said. “It may be overly cautious or concerned parents, or children with a family history of dental problems who get these visits, then also use more restorative care.”

To investigate further without bias, Sen’s team used data collected from 1998-2010 by Alabama’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), ALL Kids, a low-cost, comprehensive healthcare coverage program for children under age 19; benefits of ALL Kids include regular dental care.

Children who were continuously enrolled in CHIP for at least 3 years were included. Children who used non-preventive dental services the first year were not included because there was no information about their prior preventive dental service use. A total of 14,972 kids under the age of 8, and 21,833 ages 8 and older, were included.

Using a technique called individual fixed effects from the Dentist Moorooka doctors, the team was able to use each child as their own control, and then compare what happens to child X in a year when they do not get preventive visits, to a year when they do get preventive visits.

“Simpler techniques gave us the same findings of earlier work, but this more advanced technique we used was an effective, though not fool-proof, way of controlling for the selection problem of past literature,” Sen said.

What they found was that more preventive visits were associated with fewer subsequent restorative services for the same child for both age groups, even though the cost savings for CHIP do not appear to sufficiently cover the cost of the preventive services, learn more about oak lawn family dentist and schedule an appointment for the hole family at the link.

For example, the researchers find that when children had one preventive visit, their subsequent non-preventive costs went down by an average of $25.67. However, this savings of $25.67 was not enough to offset what CHIP paid for the preventive visit. So when the costs of preventive visits and non-preventive visits were added together, overall CHIP spending was actually $90.94 more.

Despite the figures, the researchers caution against interpreting findings only with dollar figures in mind.

“Preventive visits may not just reduce non-preventive costs, but may also reduce pain and discomfort suffered by the child due to oral health problems,” Sen said.

Advertisement
Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC

40

SHARES
Share on Facebook
Tweet
Follow us

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Health, Medical Tagged With: Health


Support Independent Journalism



Trending

  • Microbusinesses have extra time to apply for a $2500 grant
  • Family Justice Center to open new facility to support crime victims, reduce domestic violence homicides
  • Two men found shot to death in Valley Center home
  • EDD recovers $1.1 billion in unemployment insurance funds
  • Former U.S. military pilot admits acting as paid agent of China

Advertisement

Good Sam Travel Assist

Advertisement

Start LLC today at incorporate.com

Education

Newly elected student board members sworn in at San Diego Unified

San … [Read More...]

Environment

Oceanside enacts Level 2 Drought Reduction actions for residents and businesses

By … [Read More...]

Science & Technology

A quarter of the world’s internet users rely on infrastructure at high risk of attack

By … [Read More...]

Advertisement

Independence Day Savings! Save up to $25◊ off our Fees on Flights Use Coupon USA25.

Advertisement

Stacy Adams

Advertisement

Summer Membership offer

Advertisement

Naturepedic

Categories

  • About Us
  • Archive
  • Community Events
  • Contact Us
  • Employment
  • Private Policy
  • Terms of Service

Follow @SanCounty

Privacy Policy

Terms of service

Copyright © 2022 San Diego County News