Effectiveness of an alternative dental workforce model on the oral health of low-income children in a school-based setting

M. Simmer-Beck, M. Walker, C. Gadbury-Amyot, Y. Liu, P. Kelly and B. Branson

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 9, 1763-1769

Abstract: Objectives. We evaluated the effect of an alternative dental workforce program- Kansas's Extended Care Permit (ECP) program-as a function of changes in oral health. Methods. We examined data from the 2008 to 2012 electronic medical records of children (n = 295) in a Midwestern US suburb who participated in a schoolbased oral health program in which preventive oral health care was delivered by ECP dental hygienists. We examined changes in oral health status as a function of sealants, caries, restorations, and treatment urgency with descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Pearson correlations. Results. The number of encounters with the ECP dental hygienist had a statistically significant effect on changes in decay (P = .014), restorations (P = .002), and treatment urgency (P = .038). Based on Pearson correlations, as encounters increased, there was a significant decrease in decay (-0.12), increase in restorations (0.21), and decrease in treatment urgency (-0.15). Conclusions. Increasing numbers of encounters with alternative providers (ECP dental hygienists), such as with school-based oral health programs, can improve the oral health status of low-income children who would not otherwise have received oral health services.

Keywords: child; dental assistant; dental procedure; electronic medical record; female; health; human; male; nonbiological model; organization and management; poverty; preventive dentistry; school dentistry; United States, Child; Dental Care for Children; Dental Hygienists; Electronic Health Records; Female; Humans; Kansas; Male; Models, Organizational; Oral Health; Poverty; Preventive Dentistry; School Dentistry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302714_3

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302714

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