The Adolescent Dental Health Project: Access to Oral Health Care for Low-Income Adolescents

Abstract

The Adolescent Dental Health Project was collaboratively developed with Dentistry and Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, DC to address Healthy People 2010, Objective 12-21: “to increase the proportion of low-income children and adolescents who receive any preventive dental services.” This was a pilot project, incorporating descriptive analysis because little information was available about general dentists' office policies and access to care for adolescents. Healthy adolescents cannot access CNMC pediatric dental department services because of age restriction and limitations of size and staff. The purpose of the research was to determine general dentists' office policies for provision of dental services for low-income adolescents in Washington, DC, and any barriers existing for accessing care. Dental professionals' perception of adolescents was also examined.

IRB approval was granted. The stakeholders, adolescents, conducted phone surveys to 100 randomly selected general dental offices in Washington, DC. Data regarding participation with Medicaid, various insurances, sliding scale, and free care were collected. Professionals' perception of adolescents was a subjective assessment by the teens. Data were primary categorical (binary or dichotomous and multicategorical) and analyses including frequencies and bivariate tests of Fisher's Exact Test were conducted using STATA SE Version 8.0 (2003). Initial interpretation of data revealed 83% of all dental offices were located in the Northwest (NW) quadrant of Washington DC, leading researchers to investigate if there was a bivariate association between financing of care and location. No statistically significant difference was found regarding financial options between NW and other city quadrants. However, one variable, office location, may be the strongest barrier for adolescents to access care. No conclusive evidence regarding professionals' perceptions of adolescents was determined. This research project was funded through an Aetna Foundation community grant.