Methodology Research
Order Description
Describe your Research Design Subjects and Setting Data Sources and tell what Data Analyses you will employ.
Ways of Reducing Tooth Decay in America
Julie Belsanti
University of Illinois Springfield
Reducing Oral and Decay Diseases in America
Dental caries have become a chronic disease for people continuously from when they are infants all the way to their adulthood in the America as revealed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to Dye Tan and Smith (2007) dental caries or commonly known as tooth decay is an infectious and chronic disease that begins at early childhood. Dye et al. assert that dental carries varies with the tooth surface and age. As such various studies have been carried out to determine the cause and prevalence of dental carries in the U.S.
CDC analyzed reports from 2005-2010 for children and adolescents between 0 and 21 years. A total of 12143 records were analyzed to estimate the levels of dental care use. The report found out that dental caries affect at least 25 percent of U.S. infants aged between two to five years and extend to 28 percent of adults aged 35 to 44 years (CDC 2016). Their research found that factors such as ethnicity and income can be used to determine the level of the oral health that every population experiences.
With demographic factors limiting access to better health care services this disease is predicted to grow with time. According to research carried by Institute of Medicine (2011) only two-thirds of Americans are in a position of accessing health care from a dentist. The other third are unable to access due to the social challenges that they face. The Institute of Medicine (2011) claims that most Americans especially older adults and poor children have limited access to these services due to the economic hardships. Despite the increased advances in the oral health the disease will remain a problem unless there is financial intervention.
As an effective way of addressing this problem various programs have been created with the aim of reaching the underserved population in the American society. The effectiveness of these programs relies on the way they are implemented regarding the barriers that they address. The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council (2011) identified the core factors that limit underserved populations access to dental care including social structural geographic and economic factors. With the aid of the historical findings the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council (2011) recommends the use of educational programs as an effective way of countering dental caries in America.
American Dental Association report to Congress identified the common barriers to access to oral health for most of Americans (ADA 2014). These barriers were discussed during a meeting held by over 500 doctors. During this meeting policies of combating dental and oral diseases were made in conjunction with the goals of these policies. The development of outreach programs was also emphasized as being an effective way of reaching underserved populations as were various strategies for implementing them with the aim of ensuring that the poor children and elder adults could have equal access to oral health.
One sure way to decrease dental caries in infants is the development of the programs that counter this problem by increasing accessibility to health care services. Marinho (2003) argues that fluoride can be used in preventing most dental caries. Upon the evaluation of research on the use of fluoride in controlling oral and dental diseases Marinho (2003) claims that the use of fluoride is efficient and emphasizes using the correct amount of fluoride to ensure that it will perform as needed.