Sealants Not Filling Gaps in U.S. Oral Healthcare

 

The Pew Center on the States recently published an up-to-date report that graded each of the 50 U.S. states based on their compliance with four major benchmarks related to children’s oral health. This year, the focus was on prevention and the states’ efforts to improve access to sealants for low-income children.[1]

Specifically, the four key indicators of this report were as follows:

1. Providing sealant programs in high-need schools.
2. Allowing hygienists to place sealants in school-based programs (without requiring a dentist’s exam).
3. Collecting data regularly about the dental health of school children and submitting it to a national oral health database.
4. Meeting a national health objective on sealants.

In general, here is a brief summary of what the report concluded after grading each state: [1]

• 40% of all U.S. states earned either a ‘D’ or an ‘F’ on the Pew’s benchmarks.
• 35 states, as well as the District of Columbia, do not have sealant programs in a majority of high-need schools.
• 19 states plus the District of Columbia still maintain a regulation that restricts hygienists from providing sealants to more children.
• 40 states and the District of Columbia could not confirm that they had provided at least 50% of their children with sealants.
• 19 states plus the District of Columbia did not submit data within the past 5 years on school-age children to the national oral health surveillance system (NOHSS).

Here is a synopsis of how each state scored using the grading scale of A-F:
States that earned an ‘A’:

• Wisconsin
• Maine
• New Hampshire
• North Dakota
• Alaska

States that earned a ‘B’:

• Washington
• Oregon
• Idaho
• Colorado
• Minnesota
• Connecticut
• Maryland
• Massachusetts

States that earned a ‘C’:

• California
• Nevada
• Utah
• New Mexico
• Kansas
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Michigan
• Ohio
• New York
• Vermont
• West Virginia
• Virginia
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• Rhode Island
• Delaware

States that earned a ‘D’:

• Arizona
• South Dakota
• Nebraska
• Texas
• Oklahoma
• Missouri
• Arkansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Tennessee
• Alabama
• Florida
• Pennsylvania

States that earned an ‘F’:

• Hawaii
• New Jersey
• Montana
• North Carolina
• Wyoming
• District of Columbia

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Research on Sealants: A Proven Strategy to Enhance Oral Health Among Children

The report also summarized general research findings on the effects that sealants have when provided to high-needs audiences. Typically, sealants are applied to children’s teeth around the 2nd grade, or shortly after their permanent molars start to come in. Here are some additional facts that relate to this type of preventive treatments:[1]   Pew Report

• The U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services found that the tooth decay of molars decreased by an average of 60% up to five years after sealant application was implemented in a school-based program.
• ‘Healthy People 2010′ included the goal that all U.S. states apply sealants to the molars of 50% of their children—regardless of disparities such as income level, and so forth—but unfortunately 40 states (plus the District of Columbia) did not meet this goal.
• The latest data indicated that only about 26% of low-income children received sealants, compared to 34% of kids from families with high income levels.
• Moreover, only 27% of Black and Hispanic children received sealants, versus the 36% of white children that did.
• Altogether, only 50% of teenagers ages 13-15 have received sealants on one or more of their permanent teeth.
• Evidence for school-based programs estimate that “for every $1 spent on school sealant programs, $2 are saved.”

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For more information on this topic, check out the report at: Falling Short – Most States Lag on Dental Sealants