{"title":"COVID-19大流行后美国儿童的口腔保健使用和口腔健康","authors":"Wei Lyu, George L Wehby","doi":"10.1016/j.adaj.2025.09.001","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected children's access to and use of oral health care services and their oral health status. The authors compared these outcomes after the pandemic through 2023 with prepandemic levels.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data from the annual National Survey of Children's Health from 2019 through 2023 were analyzed. The authors used a multivariable regression model to compare children's unmet oral health care needs, oral health care use (ie, any visits, any preventive visits, and specific preventive dental services), and parent or caregiver ratings of the child's oral health each year from 2020 through 2023 with 2019. Additional analyses were stratified according to sociodemographic characteristics and state-level dentist supply.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In the total sample, all outcomes had rebounded to prepandemic levels by 2023, or earlier in some cases, except for poor oral health ratings, which were still higher in 2023 than the prepandemic level by 0.3 percentage points (pp) (95% CI, 0.06 to 0.5 pp). Moreover, states with low dentist supply had lower dental examination and sealant rates in 2023 than 2019 by 2.5 pp (95% CI, -4.7 to -0.3 pp) and 1.9 pp (95% CI, -3.5 to -0.3 pp), respectively. Hispanic and publicly insured children also had lagging sealant rates in 2023 compared with prepandemic levels.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Oral health care access and usage rebounded to prepandemic levels by 2023 for most children. However, poor oral health rates were still higher in 2023. In addition, dental examination and sealant rates remained lower in states with low dentist supply.</p><p><strong>Practical implications: </strong>More efforts are needed to address persistent oral health issues for children most vulnerable to poor oral health and those related to low dentist supply.</p>","PeriodicalId":17197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the American Dental Association","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Children's oral health care use and oral health in the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic.\",\"authors\":\"Wei Lyu, George L Wehby\",\"doi\":\"10.1016/j.adaj.2025.09.001\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected children's access to and use of oral health care services and their oral health status. The authors compared these outcomes after the pandemic through 2023 with prepandemic levels.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data from the annual National Survey of Children's Health from 2019 through 2023 were analyzed. The authors used a multivariable regression model to compare children's unmet oral health care needs, oral health care use (ie, any visits, any preventive visits, and specific preventive dental services), and parent or caregiver ratings of the child's oral health each year from 2020 through 2023 with 2019. Additional analyses were stratified according to sociodemographic characteristics and state-level dentist supply.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In the total sample, all outcomes had rebounded to prepandemic levels by 2023, or earlier in some cases, except for poor oral health ratings, which were still higher in 2023 than the prepandemic level by 0.3 percentage points (pp) (95% CI, 0.06 to 0.5 pp). Moreover, states with low dentist supply had lower dental examination and sealant rates in 2023 than 2019 by 2.5 pp (95% CI, -4.7 to -0.3 pp) and 1.9 pp (95% CI, -3.5 to -0.3 pp), respectively. Hispanic and publicly insured children also had lagging sealant rates in 2023 compared with prepandemic levels.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Oral health care access and usage rebounded to prepandemic levels by 2023 for most children. However, poor oral health rates were still higher in 2023. In addition, dental examination and sealant rates remained lower in states with low dentist supply.</p><p><strong>Practical implications: </strong>More efforts are needed to address persistent oral health issues for children most vulnerable to poor oral health and those related to low dentist supply.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":17197,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of the American Dental Association\",\"volume\":\" \",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-10-14\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of the American Dental Association\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"3\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adaj.2025.09.001\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"医学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"DENTISTRY, ORAL SURGERY & MEDICINE\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the American Dental Association","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adaj.2025.09.001","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DENTISTRY, ORAL SURGERY & MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
Children's oral health care use and oral health in the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected children's access to and use of oral health care services and their oral health status. The authors compared these outcomes after the pandemic through 2023 with prepandemic levels.
Methods: Data from the annual National Survey of Children's Health from 2019 through 2023 were analyzed. The authors used a multivariable regression model to compare children's unmet oral health care needs, oral health care use (ie, any visits, any preventive visits, and specific preventive dental services), and parent or caregiver ratings of the child's oral health each year from 2020 through 2023 with 2019. Additional analyses were stratified according to sociodemographic characteristics and state-level dentist supply.
Results: In the total sample, all outcomes had rebounded to prepandemic levels by 2023, or earlier in some cases, except for poor oral health ratings, which were still higher in 2023 than the prepandemic level by 0.3 percentage points (pp) (95% CI, 0.06 to 0.5 pp). Moreover, states with low dentist supply had lower dental examination and sealant rates in 2023 than 2019 by 2.5 pp (95% CI, -4.7 to -0.3 pp) and 1.9 pp (95% CI, -3.5 to -0.3 pp), respectively. Hispanic and publicly insured children also had lagging sealant rates in 2023 compared with prepandemic levels.
Conclusions: Oral health care access and usage rebounded to prepandemic levels by 2023 for most children. However, poor oral health rates were still higher in 2023. In addition, dental examination and sealant rates remained lower in states with low dentist supply.
Practical implications: More efforts are needed to address persistent oral health issues for children most vulnerable to poor oral health and those related to low dentist supply.
期刊介绍:
There is not a single source or solution to help dentists in their quest for lifelong learning, improving dental practice, and dental well-being. JADA+, along with The Journal of the American Dental Association, is striving to do just that, bringing together practical content covering dentistry topics and procedures to help dentists—both general dentists and specialists—provide better patient care and improve oral health and well-being. This is a work in progress; as we add more content, covering more topics of interest, it will continue to expand, becoming an ever-more essential source of oral health knowledge.