Access to dental care for Head Start enrollees

The objectives of this review are to characterize the oral health and dental access of Head Start children, describe barriers to their care, advance strategies to address those barriers, and consider how Head Start Performance Standards can be utilized to maximize oral health and access to dental care.

Published, programmatic, and solicited data describing oral health status and dental service utilization are reviewed together with reports of conferences exploring access barriers. Head Start performance measures for child health and development services, child health and safety, family partnerships, and community partnerships are individually evaluated for their potential to improve oral health.

Head Start children, like all low-income children, enjoy the highest rates of dental coverage (because of Medicaid and the State Child Health Insurance Program), yet these children also experience the highest rates of tooth decay, the most unmet dental care needs, the highest rates of dental pain, and the fewest dental visits. Getting children the dental care they need is problematic because of: multiple barriers associated with public and private dental delivery systems, Medicaid program funding and administration, dental workforce sufficiency and distribution, and issues of culture and communication that stand between parents, children, and caregivers.

To move beyond screening and to access necessary dental care requires integration between medical and dental care, recognition and elimination of barriers to care, an understanding of dental provider types and their capacities, a formally structured referral process, and regular monitoring to ensure that complete care is obtained. Action steps are suggested that can maximize the effectiveness of Head Start Performance Standards. Head Start holds tremendous potential to actively develop and implement policies that can markedly improve both access to needed dental services and the oral health status of young disadvantaged children.