Racial/Ethnic Differences in Receipt of Oral Health Services in Medical and Dental Offices: Impact of Medicaid Policies on Young Children.

The purpose of this study was to examine receipt of preventive oral health services (POHS) by race/ethnicity for young Medicaid-enrollees following the enactment of state policies enabling medical providers to deliver POHS. Using Medicaid data (2006 to 2014) from 38 states for 8,711,192 child-years (aged six months to five years), logistic regressions were used to examine differences within and between racial/ethnic groups (white, black, Hispanic, and "other" race/ethnicity groups) in terms of adjusted probabilities of receiving POHS in medical offices or any medical or dental offices. Models were adjusted for years since policy enactment and estimated separately for states with and without requirements that medical providers obtain POHS training. Receipt of any POHS was 10.9 percentage points higher for Hispanic children and 4.7 percentage points higher for "other" race/ethnicity group children than white children after five or more years of policy enactment in states with training requirements (P<0.05). Findings for medical POHS and states without training requirements were similar but smaller in magnitude. Hispanic and "other" race/ethnicity group children benefitted more from the integration of POHS into medical offices than white children. Policies enabling delivery of POHS in medical offices increased receipt of POHS among some minority groups and may help to reduce disparities.