Twenty-five years of increasing use of pediatric dental services

Data from a continuing series of surveys by the national Interview Survey confirm further increases in use of pediatric dental services through 1989. The surveys show that by 1989 almost a third of children between two and four years of age visited a dentist in the previous year. For children between two and fourteen, and between five and fourteen, 60.5 percent and 69.5 percent, respectively, had visited a dentist in the previous year. Most significant has been the decrease in the percent of children who never visited a dentist, in the past twenty-five years. In the mid 1960s, approximately a quarter of children between five and fourteen years had never visited a dentist. Twenty-five years later, the percentage was reduced to 8.6 percent. There were also decreases in the percent of very young children (less than five years and between two and four): 78 percent and 55 percent, respectively, in the 1980s. There are, however, major reasons for concern. The percentage of children living in poverty continued to increase in the 1990s. In 1990 cases of measles, mumps, rubella, and pertussis increased. Twenty-two countries had lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. Increasing rates of nursing caries and fluorosis are appearing.