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#757
Investigation of Dental Care Mobile Services in the Amish
Marc Harrison1, Masahiro Heima1 , Gerald A. Ferretti1, Amritha Minisandram1,
1Case
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Objectives
Results
Method
Retrospective chart reviewing study analyzing all of the Amish patients’
charts treated by the DCM from May 20, 2011 to May 19, 2012 (N=206).
Each patient chart includes an oral examination record and a parent
questionnaire.
Results
Background
The Dental Care Mobile(DCM) provides dental treatment to underserved
Amish children in Northeast Ohio.
Characteristic data
Age: 3.12 - 17.75 years (Mean±SD = 10.27±3.70)
Gender rate: male / female = 54.9 / 45.1
Parents’ (94.7% mothers) education level: 99% did not graduate from high
school
Dental visit
Accessibility of dental care
Never been
to dentist
32.1% of children could not go to dentist:
28%
the most common reason was
Been to
“couldn't afford“ at 65.7%
dentist
72%
While living their seemingly healthy lifestyle, very little dental research has
been done for the Amish.
Traveling distance of Amish patients
Percentage of Insured Children
Private
insurance
1.4%
25% of children
visited from more
than 14 km
50% of children
visited from within
8.5 km
Medicaid
10.7%
Not
insured
88%
]
Insured
12.1%
Oral health
Mean±SD of dft: 4.66±3.54 (n=149)
Mean±SD of DMFT: 5.24±4.81 (n=169)
Toothache during the past 6 months: 38.1%
Reason of last dental visit: oral problems 43.8%
Parent’s perception of children’s oral health
NS
NS
Mean ±SD of decay
score
To investigate the impact of the DCM on Amish children’s oral health and to
gain a greater understanding of the oral health of Amish children.
Said oral health
was “good”
8
6
Said oral health
was “poor”
4
2
5.0
3.8
4.4
3.1
0
Primary
Permanent
Interesting Findings
Another important result came from comparing family members with
diabetes (DM) and the child’s dft. If the child had a family member with
DM, they had less dental caries (a mean dft of 3.51±3.26) compared
to those who did not have a family member with DM (a mean dft of
5.03±3.63). (t=2.247, df=135, p=0.026, 95% CI of the Difference
0.182-2.851) Currently, we cannot explain these findings.
Conclusion
The DCM is making a great impact on Amish children’s oral health; but
alarmingly, the study reveals that the Amish children have dental
access difficulty, poor accuracy of parents’ perception of children’s oral
health, and similarities to other high caries risk populations.
This research is supported by the student summer research program at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine