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Rural Caries Risk

Decent Essays

The rural landscape of the United States forms special challenges for those living in rural communities that are not seen in the urban or suburban setting. According to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau in 2014 15.5% of children in the United States were living in rural areas (“Rural and Urban Children,” 2014). Rural areas were defined by the US Census bureau as any area with 50,000 or less people, or urban clusters with less than 2,500 people. Assessing oral health status of those in rural areas presents unique challenges. Challenges are due to geography and the spread of sparse populations over large areas of land. In reviewing the literature related to the question, do children in rural areas have higher caries risk, it became evident …show more content…

Most literature related to rural oral health are centered on studying access to care. Paper’s related solely to access to care were not included because they did not directly answer the research question. After reviewing the literature, papers were chosen based on the research most clearly addressing the question of caries risk in rural children. Additionally, a papers were selected because elements addressed by the studies helped to create a complete picture of the challenges facing rural communities in lowering caries risk and increasing access to care. Papers were also chosen that presented a full picture of the challenges of collecting data from a rural landscape. All papers chosen were cross-sectional studies and were published between 1999 and 2016. The final papers chosen and evaluated were Oral Health Status of Children and Adolescents by Rural Residence, Is There an Appalachian Disparity in Dental Caries in Pennsylvania Schoolchildren?, Dental Caries and Fluorosis in Schoolchildren in a Rural Georgia Area, Geography Matters: state-level variation in children’s oral health care access and oral health status, and Oral Health Status of preschool children attending Head Start in …show more content…

Adair et al., utilized methods for this study where children were examined by calibrated two dentists and parents completing a questionnaire about fluoride exposure. The population in this study included children whose school drinking water was fluoridated. Differences between the population groups came from home water supply either being fluoridated or non-fluoridated. A major limitation of this study is that only a small sample size in rural Georgia was assessed.
Geography matters: state-level variation in children’s oral health care access and oral health status examined the differences in children’s oral health status and access to care between states. Data from this study was derived from the 2007 Survey of Children’s Health. The population of interest in this study was children age 2- 17. The study also considered child, family, and community variables that may impact oral health status and access to care. Limitations of this study included data restrictions as private insurance data was difficult to access (Fisher – Owens et al,

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