No matter how well children brush their teeth, food particles and plaque too often get left behind.
A simple way to prevent tooth decay, especially in the molars and premolars, is a sealant: a thin plastic coating that bonds with the grooves of those back teeth to provide an extra layer of protection. Sealants prevent 60 percent of decay and cost about one-third what a filling does.
Dr. Richard Gruffi explains the dental sealant he's about to apply to 4th grader Malaysia Wade in Yonkers, N.Y. Despite a state-funded program to bring basic medical care to low-income schools, New York state, like California, received only a 'C' grade for its efforts to provide sealants to more poor kids.
AP PHOTO BY JULIE JACOBSON
But most states aren't doing enough to get dental sealants into the mouths of poor kids, who tend to have higher incidence of tooth decay than middle-class and wealthy kids. That's according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States.
About two-thirds of states don't have sealant programs in a majority of their high-need schools. The report gave 17 states, including California, a C. California was faulted for having programs in fewer than 25 percent of high-need schools.
At least this state lets dental hygienists apply the sealants. Nineteen states and D.C. still require a dentist to perform an exam first, which is an unnecessary step that increases health-care costs, the report says.
Dental sealants are typically applied to kids in the second grade, when their permanent teeth have come in. Many insurance plans pay for them.