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Oral Health

Journal Article
Barriers and Facilitators to Optimal Fluoride Varnish Application
Guidelines recommend that children under age six receive fluoride varnish (FV) in medical settings. However, application rates remain low. This study aimed to update understanding of barriers and facilitators to guideline concordant FV application.
Dec 6, 2023
Research Brief
Dental program accreditation: Exploring mechanisms of impact
The Australian Dental Council's approach to dental program accreditation uses directive, anticipatory, strategic, stakeholder, and relational impact mechanisms to influence education providers and ensure graduates are sufficiently competent.
Jun 30, 2022
Report
Understanding and evaluating the impact of dental program accreditation
Dental program accreditation activities undertaken by the Australian Dental Council influence education providers via directive, anticipatory, strategic, stakeholder, and relational impact mechanisms.
Jun 30, 2022
Journal Article
Characteristics of US Adults Delaying Dental Care Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted the delivery of health care services, including dental care. The objective of this study was to quantify and describe US adults who delayed dental care due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feb 12, 2021
Journal Article
Low Rates of Pediatric Dental Coverage for Families Purchasing Marketplace Insurance Plans
Pediatric dental care is an essential health benefit that the Affordable Care Act requires most private health plans to cover. It is unknown how these different pediatric dental coverage offerings may affect uptake of coverage.
Feb 12, 2021
Journal Article
Impact of a Medicaid Policy on Preventive Oral Health Services for Children with Intellectual Disabilities, Developmental Disabilities, or Both
The authors examined the impact of state policies allowing delivery of POHS in medical offices on receipt of POHS among Medicaid enrollees with IDD.
Feb 12, 2021
Journal Article
Impact of State-Level Training Requirements for Medical Providers on Receipt of Preventive Oral Health Services for Young Children Enrolled in Medicaid
Our objective was to test whether training requirements were associated with higher rates of preventive oral health services for Medicaid-enrolled children <6 years.
Feb 11, 2021
Journal Article
Changes in Pediatric Dental Coverage and Visits Following the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act
Comparing pre- and post-ACA periods, private dental insurance increased by 4.6% (P=0.013) and annual dental visits were unchanged (2.7%, P=0.071) comparing children likely or unlikely to be affected by the ACA.
Feb 2, 2021
Journal Article
Delivery of Preventive Oral Health Services by Rurality: A Cross-Sectional Analysis
Using a multistate sample of Medicaid claims, we examined a child's odds of receiving preventive oral health services in a medical office by county rurality.
Feb 2, 2021
Journal Article
Do Oral Health Services in Medical Offices Replace Pediatric Dental Visits?
This study failed to find evidence that medical preventive oral health services (POHS) replaced dental visits for young children enrolled in Medicaid and, in fact, offers evidence that increased medical POHS was associated with increased utilization of dental care. Given lower than desired rates of dental visits for this population, delivery of medical POHS should be expanded.
Jun 25, 2020
Journal Article
Association Between Type of Health Insurance and Children's Oral Health, NHANES 2011–2014
Oral health outcomes were similar for children with public and private health insurance. However, children in low- income families and with less educated parents had greater odds of untreated caries, suggesting that initiatives focused on publicly insured populations may miss other vulnerable children of low socioeconomic status.
Dec 20, 2018
Journal Article
A School-Based Public Health Model to Reduce Oral Health Disparities
Broad-based school-community partnerships can help address the unmet oral health needs of low-income children.
Jun 8, 2017
Report
Access to Dental Providers in Pennsylvania: Exploration of the County-Level Distribution of Dental Providers and Populations in 2013
This report examines an important factor in the ability to access dental care: the distribution and availability of dental health providers. The authors assess these characteristics of providers across the counties of Pennsylvania in 2013.
Jan 21, 2016
Journal Article
Child and Adolescent Perceptions of Oral Health Over the Life Course
This study conducted focus groups with ethnically, socioeconomically, and geographically diverse youth (8–12, 13–17 years) to identify perceptions of oral health status.
Nov 20, 2015
Journal Article
A Research Note on Transitions in Out-of-Pocket Spending on Dental Services
The authors analyze correlates of the direction and magnitude of changes in out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for dental care by older Americans over a recent 4-year period.
Feb 26, 2015
Journal Article
Response Error in Reporting Dental Coverage by Older Americans in the Health and Retirement Study
The aim of this research was to analyze the inconsistency in responses to survey questions within the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) regarding insurance coverage of dental services.
Dec 31, 2014
Report
Oral Health: Parental and Provider Perspectives
Oral health is important to children’s overall health and well-being. However, access to care can be a challenge for parents seeking oral health services for children who are Medicaid beneficiaries. Also, providers have noted a general unawareness among parents about the importance of preventive oral health care.
Apr 26, 2013
Journal Article
Oral Health Literacy Assessment: Development of an Oral Health Literacy Instrument for Spanish Speakers
The authors develop an oral health literacy instrument for Spanish-speaking adults, evaluate its psychometric properties, and determine its comparability to an English version.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Examining Dental Usage Under Changing Economic Conditions
Only when wealth fell by 50 percent or more did older Americans decrease dental use. This finding might extend to other health care services that are preventive, routine, and relatively inexpensive.
Jan 1, 2012
Journal Article
Wealth Effect and Dental Care Utilization in the United States
The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship of wealth and income and the relative impact of each on dental utilization in a population of older Americans, using data from the Health and Retirement Study.
Jan 1, 2012

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Researcher Spotlight

Ashley M. Kranz

Senior Policy Researcher

Ashley Kranz is a senior policy researcher at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She conducts health services research focused on improving access to care, quality of care, and health outcomes of vulnerable populations, including children and adults…
Ian D. Coulter

Senior Health Policy Researcher

Ian Coulter is codirector of the RAND Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Center, a senior health policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, professor emeritus at UCLA, and research professor at the Southern California University of Health Sciences. He has…

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