Executive Summary
Challenges around provider availability and insurance coverage often play a factor in children’s ability to access oral health care. Despite oral health playing a key role in children’s overall health and quality of life, these challenges make it harder for parents and caregivers to prioritize, often resulting in dental care being sought at the pediatrician’s office. Left untreated, tooth decay can cause abscesses in children and lead to infection in other parts of the body. Children with tooth pain may also find it difficult to eat, resulting in poor nutrition that hinders growth and development. Chronic pain can also lead to school absences, difficulty paying attention in the classroom, and lower academic performance. Oral health also has important social implications for children, as poor oral hygiene can lead to bullying, anxiety, and social withdrawal.
Despite its vital importance, children’s oral health outcomes in North Carolina are not improving. Children still experience high levels of untreated tooth decay and often cannot access the preventive care that catches and treats decay early.
Too many families are unable to access oral health care; for children with Medicaid coverage, accessing care becomes more difficult as there are too few oral health providers throughout the state that accept Medicaid and see pediatric patients. This leads to oral health access gaps that can significantly delay care and allow decay to progress to severe levels. School-based oral health services play a key role in bridging these access gaps, but access to these school-based services is inconsistent across North Carolina.
This report builds on lessons learned from NC Child’s 2024 Oral Health Listening Tour. This research more narrowly centers the experiences of four populations imperative to understanding the scope of children’s oral health in North Carolina: parents of children with Medicaid coverage, school district personnel, oral health providers, and children themselves. We collected qualitative data from these key groups across the state to understand the current challenges, perceptions, and opportunities around oral health.
Through interviews and focus groups, this research seeks to understand crucial factors affecting current children’s oral health outcomes, including access barriers, policy gaps, and complications in innovative service delivery.
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