Most Disadvantaged Kids Have Dental Diseases

Dental diseases may affect the teeth, the gums, or other tissues and parts of the mouth. Dental diseases can cause much more serious problems than a toothache; they can affect our ability to chew, smile, or speak properly. Their severity may range from a simple Dental loupes aphthous ulcer, to a common tooth cavity, or up to a deadly oral cancer.

These are among the most common diseases in humans and include dental caries, gingivitis, periodontitis and many more oral conditions. The prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of these diseases are the base to the dentistry profession, in which are dentists and dental hygienists, and its sub-specialties, such as oral medicine, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and endodontics.

A huge percentage of underprivileged kids in Los Angeles County have infectious dental disease that’s gone unchecked, according to a study led by the Herman Ostrow School of Dental X Ray Dentistry of the University of Southern California.

In the report, “The Children’s Dental Health Project of Los Angeles County,” researchers Roseann Mulligan and Hazem Seirawan reveal that a staggering 73 percent of disadvantaged kids have untreated caries, the bacterial disease responsible for tooth decay. Dentists screened more than 2,300 children at 59 Head Start centers, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) centers, and elementary and high schools throughout the county.

This groundbreaking study is the most comprehensive study on oral health in underprivileged children ever conducted in Los Angeles County, surveying children of a wide range of ages, races and degrees of caries infection.

A “silent epidemic” with five times the Ultrasonic scaler prevalence of asthma, caries is the most common chronic disease in children and can result in serious pain and illnesses affecting parts of the body beyond the mouth, says Mulligan, Chair of the Division of Dental Public Health and Pediatric Dentistry at the Ostrow School of Dentistry. The disease is an infectious process, with bacteria passed between individuals via shared eating utensils, kissing and other forms of contact. The pain caused by the disease is a huge contributor to school absences throughout the county.

The study also explains many of the complex social, logistical and economic factors that make disadvantaged kids more likely to suffer from untreated dental caries. One significant barrier is dental insurance; many kids aren’t covered by Denti-Cal, California’s public dental insurance program, and the parents of those kids that are covered may still have trouble regularly seeing a dentist since only about half of the dentists in Los Angeles County accept Denti-Cal, says Seirawan, research assistant professor at the Ostrow School of Dentistry. Other factors include poor oral hygiene habits, inadequate nutrition, the consumption of bottled versus fluoridated tap water, and more.Welcome to http://www.zeta-dental.com.au/ buy dental equipment.