oral health briefing C D A J O U R N A L , V O L 4 9 , Nº 5
Oral Health Status of Children: Results of the 2018–2019 California Third Grade Smile Survey Brendan Darsie, MPH; Shannon Conroy, PhD, MPH; and Jayanth Kumar, DDS, MPH
abstract This report presents findings from a survey of third grade children conducted during the 2018 and 2019 school years. The prevalence of tooth decay, untreated tooth decay and dental sealants was 61%, 22% and 37%, respectively. Overall achievements among third graders included a noticeable reduction in tooth decay experience (61% down from 71%) and untreated decay (22% down from 29%) and an increase in dental sealant prevalence (37% up from 28%) compared to the 2004–05 school year when this was last assessed. However, tooth decay remains a significant public health problem, especially among certain racial/ethnic and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.
AUTHORS Brendan Darsie, MPH, is a research scientist II for the Office of Oral Health and the Center for Healthy Communities in the California Department of Public Health. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None reported.
Shannon Conroy, PhD, MPH, is a research scientist supervisor I and the chief of the Surveillance and Evaluation Unit for the Office of Oral Health and the Center for Healthy Communities in the California Department of Public Health. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None reported. Jayanth Kumar, DDS, MPH, is the state dental director, Office of Oral Health and the Center for Healthy Communities, California Department of Public Health. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: None reported.
I
n 2014, the California Legislature set forth a vision to assess and improve oral health in the state.1 A 2017 report, the Status of Oral Health in California: Oral Disease Burden and Prevention, found the state was not on track to achieve many of the Healthy People 2020 national goals and objectives.2 The report determined that California ranked in the lower quartile among states in children’s oral health status and receipt of preventive dental services. There were marked oral health disparities with respect to race and ethnicity and income and education, but the data were not current. Ongoing monitoring of state-specific oral health outcomes along with continual assessment and evaluation are needed to support policies and programs. To fulfill this function, the Association of State and
Territorial Dental Directors developed the Basic Screening Survey protocol.3 The last such survey in California was conducted among kindergarten and third grade children in the 2004–2005 school year.4 This report presents key findings from the California Smile Survey (CSS), a population-based, representative survey of 12,562 third grade children conducted during the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 school years (TA BLE 1 ). The results are compared to a similar CSS conducted during the 2004–2005 school year.
Methodology
The CSS was administered during the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 school years to a representative sample of third grade children in California. The sampling methodology was a stratified M AY 2 0 2 1
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