Oral Heath Disparities in Children and Adolescents: Determinants and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Access to dental care for prevention and treatment is crucial to ensure optimal oral health. Dental care has recently been identified as the most prevalent unmet health need among children in the United States. The disparity in oral health among children and adolescents is a pressing concern, highlighting inequities in access to dental care and meeting specific oral health needs. Financial barriers constitute a significant deterrent to obtaining dental care, especially for children who reside in low-income households. Children from low-income and minority families have poorer oral health outcomes, fewer dental visits, and fewer protective sealants. Water fluoridation is the most effective measure in preventing dental caries, though a lack of fluoridation may disproportionately affect poor and minority children. Oral health is also the most prevalent unmet health need of children with special health care needs.

The goal of this Special Issue is to raise awareness and highlight the current issues surrounding oral health determinants and disparities in children and adolescents. We invite manuscripts that comprehensively describe the prevailing understanding of oral health determinants and disparities in youth and focus their attention on addressing the oral health statuses of children and their access to care.

We welcome original research reports, reviews, and meta-analyses for submission to this Special Issue, and we encourage the submission of proposals for interdisciplinary work and collaborative research. We look forward to receiving your contributions and creating a Special Issue with the aim of providing readers with updated research findings and novel data in understanding the oral health determinants and disparities in children and adolescents.

Dr. Caroline M. Sawicki
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• access to care
• oral health determinants
• oral health disparities
• children’s oral health
• childhood caries
• special health care needs
• untreated dental disease