The University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine and CareQuest Institute, then the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement, collaborated on a study that investigated the impact of well-child visits on promoting preventive dental visits using big data. Based on the analysis of over 1.3 million Medicaid claims for children aged 4 or less in 13 states, the study found increased utilization of preventive dental visits among children who had a well-child medical visit. This research builds on prior research to find that primary care medical providers can play an important role in encouraging pediatric patients to access dental care and receive preventive oral health services. Although the trend was present for all ages that were examined, utilization was lowest among the age 1 population. Because both the American Academy of Physicians and American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommend a dental visit by age 1, increased adoption of this guideline among pediatric physicians and parents is needed.
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