A DREES study reveals that social inequalities influence children’s dental health. Those of workers consult their dentist less, as a result, they have cavities more often.
Just like obesity, oral health remains a marker of social inequalities, and this from an early age! In a study published on Wednesday on children’s dental health, the Drees (1) reveals that even si the overall situation of teeth has improved markedly over the past twenty years, disparities according to the parents’ social background remained.
Insufficient recourse to the dentist
While 79% of children aged 5 to 15 whose mother is an executive have consulted a dentist in the last twelve months, this percentage barely reaches 60% among the children of workers.
This frequency also increases gradually according to the mother’s diploma. The proportion of children who have seen a dentist during the year thus drops from 62% when the mother has no diploma to 76% when she has a higher education qualification. Finally, we note that this rate is at its lowest among children (56%), when the reference person in the household is unemployed.
But, in the end, no parent complies to the letter with the recommendations of the High Authority for Health (HAS) which recommend an annual check-up to the dentist for adults as for children, as soon as teeth appear. milk.
Lack of knowledge of the devices
To remedy these social inequalities in the use of care from childhood, a prevention program was set up by the Health Insurance in 2007. It offers free consultations at different ages of childhood and adolescence.
And, there again, the use of these devices varies in an unequal manner, always according to the social group of the parents. In fact, 64% of the children whose household reference person is employed declare having taken part in the visit to the 6the birthday, against 82% of children of executives or intermediate professions.
Social inequalities impact children’s dental health
According to studies reported by DREES, 8% of children of managers and 30% of children of workers have already had at least one cavity by the age of 6 years. In addition, in kindergarten, 4% of the children of managers have at least one untreated decay, against 23% of the children of workers. “Inequalities of recourse result in a later identification of cavities”, specifies the report. Similarly, children attending school in priority education zones have at least twice as often, untreated decay.
Finally, according to Drees, this finding is all the more worrying as these social inequalities in childhood will also be penalizing for the oral health of the future adult. The management explains on the one hand that, the habits of care and regular follow-up not taken in childhood will be more difficult to acquire in adulthood. And on the other hand, that early identification of dental problems makes it possible to avoid heavy and expensive treatments.
So, to remedy these inequalities, she recalls that the Medicare launched in 2007 the prevention program “M’T’Dents”. It offers free consultations at different ages of childhood and adolescence. In 2010, nearly three-quarters of children aged 6, 9 and 12 benefited from this device, but there again there are gaps between social groups …
(1) Department of research, studies, evaluation and statistics
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