7% of U.S.kids have unmet dental needs

Some 4.3 million U.S. children did not get needed dental care in 2010 because their families could not afford it, according to an ADA News report.

The number represents 7% of U.S. children younger than 18 and includes those not in an institution, according to the Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2010.

The survey is conducted annually for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Some 26% were uninsured children who were more than six times as likely to have unmet dental need as children with private health insurance (4%) and more than four times as likely as children with Medicaid or other public coverage (6%), the 2010 survey found.

Some 33% of uninsured children had not seen a dental professional for more than two years, including those who never had a contact, compared with 12% of children with Medicaid and 12% of children with private insurance.

Non-Hispanic white children were more likely to have had a dental contact in the past six months (67%) than non-Hispanic black (55%) or Hispanic (57%) children. Children with single mothers were