According to a new “Falling Short: Most States Lag on Dental Sealants” report by Pew Center on the States, the majority of states are lacking in preventing tooth decay, and is one of the catalysts of health care cost increases for taxpayers and families.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia received a letter grade of D or F in providing kids with dental sealants, which are plastic clear-colored coating affixed to molars’ chewing surfaces – the most cavity prone of the teeth — to prevent tooth decay. These preventative sealants run at a cost of one-third that of filling a cavity, according to a Pew Center press release.

 

Key Findings of the Pew Center Report

• — Only two states (New Hampshire and Maine) received the total number of maximum points possible.
• — Only five states received an “A”.
• — Eight states received a “B”, but only four of these had a dental sealant program
• — Fifteen and seventeen states received letter grades of “D” and “C”, respectively.
• — New Jersey, North Carolina, Wyoming, District of Columbia, and Hawaii all earned a letter grade “F”.

 

Based on the state’s policies in place as of July 1, 2012, states received grades based on four criteria:

1) having a sealant program in high-need areas schools
2) meeting national objectives on sealants set up by the Health People 2010 federal government goals
3) regularly gathering data on school age children’s dental health combined with submitted it to a national database
4) enabling dental hygienists to incorporate sealants in school programs without needing a dentist’s examination

 

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Photo by: Don’t mess with Texas / Rishabh Mishra / CC BY 2.0