Kids' Access To Dental Care May Start with Parents
February 10, 2010

By Nancy Volkers
InteliHealth News Service

INTELIHEALTH - Making it easier for parents to get and pay for dental care may improve access to care for children, too.

That's the conclusion of a study published by Harvard researchers. They used results from a 2007 national survey to compare parents' use of dental services with their children's.

Their results included 6,107 parent-child pairs. Of these, 77% of the children and 64% of the parents had visited the dentist in the past year. Children were more than 3 times as likely to visit the dentist if their parents also visited.

Some parents said they put off their own dental care because of cost. They were more likely to put off their children's care, as well.

Researchers suggested that working to reduce barriers to adult dental care may help to improve children's access to care.

The study appears in the February 1 issue of the journal Pediatrics.