Title:
Oral Health Disparities in United States and Canadian Immigrant Population and Low-income Families

Authors:
William Avdeev, USA

Abstract:

Even though our country’s oral health has improved since 1960s; however, the access to these improvements is not equally distributed among all Americans.  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more people are unable to afford dental care than other types of health care. Specifically, in 2015, 29% of the people in the United States have no health insurance, of out which 62% are older adults.  Many low-income adults do not have public dental insurance, which includes immigrant population.  Specifically, Medicaid programs are not required to provide dental benefits to retiring adults. As a result, currently, there are fifteen states that provide no dental coverage or only emergency coverage for adults who are on Medicaid.  Moreover, 40% of low-income and non-Hispanic African American adults have untreated tooth decay.  Among children between 2 and 5 years, about 33% of Mexican American and 28% of non-Hispanic African American have had cavities in their primary teeth, compared to 18% of non-Hispanic White children.  For children between 12 and 19 years old, about 70% of Mexican American children have had cavities in their primary teeth, compared with 54% of non-Hispanic White children. This paper will discuss the need to respond to these statistics.  These oral health disparities do not only have health consequences, but also have social and economic impacts that cannot be overlooked (CDC.gov, 2021).

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.51505/ijmshr.2023.7406