HC4.A Oral health: Percentage of children ages 2–17 with a dental visit in the past year by age and selected characteristics, 1997–2020

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Characteristic 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019a 2020a, b
Ages 2–4
Total 44.7 44.8 39.9 44.1 42.2 40.6 46.5 46.6 48.0 45.6 47.0 50.9 55.5 52.3 57.5 57.3 62.2 61.3 63.2 63.9 65.7 65.0 67.7 62.3
Poverty statusc
Below 100% poverty 46.0 46.3 35.0 47.0 40.2 40.9 45.4 43.8 43.0 43.5 45.5 51.7 55.9 54.8 56.3 58.7 64.2 62.4 67.7 62.9 65.5 71.6 70.3 65.2
100%–199% poverty 39.1 36.0 37.2 42.7 35.7 33.9 41.2 43.0 43.6 40.9 48.8 49.0 60.2 51.4 59.3 54.0 58.5 58.7 59.2 66.2 61.8 63.0 66.0 57.3
200% poverty and above 46.4 47.6 42.5 43.7 45.2 43.0 49.1 48.9 51.7 48.3 46.7 51.4 53.1 51.6 57.3 58.0 62.8 62.0 62.9 63.3 67.2 63.5 67.5 63.6
Type of insuranced
Public insurancee, f 46.0 46.4 41.9 44.8 44.3 43.1 46.0 48.7 51.5 49.5 46.8 51.3 55.6 50.5 56.8 56.5 61.2 61.6 61.2 62.1 66.2 64.0 66.2 63.5
Public insurancee, f 49.9 47.9 41.3 46.3 41.9 42.1 49.6 48.3 45.5 45.0 49.7 54.8 58.5 57.9 59.9 61.1 66.0 61.9 67.5 69.2 66.6 68.9 71.6 61.9
No insurance 30.5 29.0 25.5 37.3 27.1 22.3 35.6 24.9 31.3 23.8 37.2 35.2 33.7 30.4 47.6 35.1 37.6 47.4 ‡ 37.8 ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡
Race and Hispanic origing
White, non-Hispanic 44.5 44.6 40.9 45.1 44.1 42.6 47.4 47.8 49.5 45.9 44.7 48.9 56.7 47.8 53.6 53.7 59.8 57.6 60.1 60.6 64.1 59.4 65.1 58.9
Black, non-Hispanic 49.3 48.8 41.2 43.3 40.1 37.8 47.9 38.2 47.9 39.9 50.0 60.5 55.8 58.3 59.5 64.6 61.3 66.2 70.5 72.3 64.8 77.3 73.0 60.5
American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic 54.8 ‡ ‡ 73.4 ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ 69.7 ‡ 71.0 ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ 88.5 76.7 80.0 ‡ 69.1 ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡
Asian 41.0 39.3 37.0 40.3 34.2 37.1 37.9 44.9 38.7 47.4 35.0 38.7 50.3 43.4 55.0 45.1 48.5 58.0 57.0 62.4 58.1 70.7 62.3 ‡
Asian, non-Hispanic 38.3 40.3 37.4 40.2 35.0 37.7 38.0 45.3 40.3 49.5 35.0 37.5 48.3 40.0 53.5 44.6 48.7 56.2 55.9 61.7 54.1 68.9 62.3 ‡
Two or more races — — 48.7 53.8 40.0 46.9 48.8 57.5 51.1 57.7 54.7 46.9 54.6 51.9 61.1 51.5 68.5 57.8 65.8 61.4 45.6 61.2 69.5 ‡
Hispanic 43.0 44.2 34.5 39.2 38.7 36.3 44.1 46.9 43.6 45.4 50.9 52.7 57.1 59.4 64.1 62.1 67.8 67.7 67.8 66.2 75.4 69.7 71.0 71.9
Ages 5–17
Total 79.2 80.0 79.8 80.6 80.1 81.8 81.5 83.2 82.7 82.9 83.7 83.9 84.0 85.4 87.3 88.0 87.7 87.8 89.6 89.3 89.1 90.6 91.2 89.4
Poverty statusc
Below 100% poverty 66.7 68.3 64.6 66.1 66.3 69.9 71.0 71.5 72.7 74.9 74.2 75.7 76.1 78.6 81.7 81.4 82.3 82.2 86.1 85.4 85.6 87.2 87.4 83.9
100%–199% poverty 67.9 68.4 68.8 71.2 70.8 74.7 73.2 74.9 74.7 74.5 75.9 75.3 79.2 79.6 82.6 84.7 82.8 82.7 86.2 84.7 83.7 86.8 88.2 85.8
200% poverty and above 87.4 87.5 87.7 87.8 86.9 87.5 87.4 89.5 88.4 88.8 89.1 89.6 88.6 90.1 91.3 91.8 91.8 92.2 92.3 92.4 92.2 92.9 93.5 92.0
Type of insuranced
Public insurancee, f 85.3 85.5 86.2 86.9 86.4 87.7 87.3 89.2 88.4 89.5 89.5 89.6 89.2 90.1 91.0 91.6 92.5 91.8 92.4 92.7 92.9 93.7 93.4 92.4
Public insurancee, f 76.7 75.5 72.5 74.9 73.1 75.7 77.7 78.1 79.5 79.3 80.1 82.6 82.9 84.6 87.0 87.5 86.7 86.0 88.8 88.4 87.2 89.6 91.5 88.9
No insurance 50.2 53.6 51.2 53.1 53.0 56.5 53.4 53.5 53.2 53.2 54.2 51.0 54.9 55.6 60.0 61.6 56.4 59.9 62.5 59.4 64.0 66.6 65.8 63.3
Race and Hispanic origing
White, non-Hispanic 83.6 84.2 84.8 85.7 85.1 87.2 86.3 88.0 87.0 87.3 87.1 87.5 86.9 88.2 89.1 89.6 90.2 90.0 91.0 89.9 91.1 91.7 92.2 90.9
Black, non-Hispanic 73.3 74.2 73.1 75.6 73.7 75.1 75.5 80.3 78.7 79.4 80.6 82.9 81.6 84.4 87.1 87.4 85.0 86.8 88.6 90.9 86.3 90.2 92.1 88.2
American Indian or Alaska Native 72.1 81.5 61.6 71.2 81.3 77.1 74.6 75.0 78.4 78.9 91.9 79.6 78.5 78.4 88.8 90.3 82.9 94.2 87.8 87.9 88.8 96.2 ‡ ‡
American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic 73.9 81.5 59.6 75.2 81.2 75.2 75.7 76.8 82.1 78.7 93.1 83.6 74.2 70.8 88.0 93.8 85.4 94.4 88.4 85.7 89.4 97.5 ‡ ‡
Asian 76.1 74.7 78.0 81.9 83.2 74.8 81.8 79.9 76.7 82.7 79.1 82.1 82.2 82.1 81.9 85.7 86.7 84.8 88.0 89.2 87.8 88.6 90.1 89.1
Asian, non-Hispanic 75.7 74.7 77.8 81.8 83.2 76.0 81.3 79.5 76.7 82.7 79.3 82.3 81.8 81.7 81.5 85.4 87.2 83.9 87.9 89.0 87.9 88.7 90.6 88.7
Two or more races — — 80.3 77.7 79.2 79.5 82.8 84.6 85.2 84.4 81.0 82.9 87.2 86.3 86.5 87.7 87.0 84.9 89.4 89.9 88.1 90.6 93.1 92.7
Hispanic 66.1 67.7 65.8 65.9 66.4 69.2 70.0 70.4 72.8 71.9 76.7 75.1 77.8 79.3 84.3 85.0 84.0 84.7 87.6 87.6 87.1 88.8 89.2 86.9
Ages 5–11
Total 80.7 80.1 80.8 81.0 80.4 82.7 81.6 83.9 83.8 82.9 84.7 84.0 85.0 86.5 88.9 89.3 88.7 88.6 90.7 90.9 90.1 91.5 92.0 90.6
Poverty statusc
Below 100% poverty 70.4 70.1 66.2 68.5 67.9 72.1 72.9 73.6 74.7 74.3 78.1 77.9 77.3 80.8 86.3 84.0 85.5 85.1 89.4 89.2 88.9 88.7 87.7 89.1
100%–199% poverty 71.7 68.6 70.7 73.4 70.9 76.8 73.9 76.2 76.0 74.8 78.4 75.6 83.5 81.8 83.7 87.2 84.9 84.4 87.8 88.2 85.9 89.3 90.4 86.8
200% poverty and above 88.2 87.5 88.5 87.5 87.5 88.2 87.3 90.0 89.4 89.4 89.0 89.7 88.8 90.9 92.3 92.4 91.8 92.1 92.5 92.6 92.3 93.2 94.0 92.4
Type of insuranced
Public insurancee, f 86.4 85.0 87.2 86.7 86.5 88.4 86.3 89.4 88.9 89.6 89.3 89.0 89.3 90.5 91.6 92.0 93.2 91.0 92.8 93.3 92.4 93.4 94.0 91.7
Public insurancee, f 77.9 76.1 71.4 75.4 75.0 77.2 78.5 79.8 80.3 78.5 82.1 83.3 84.7 85.9 89.0 88.8 88.3 88.5 90.1 90.4 89.3 90.9 91.8 92.1
No insurance 55.1 57.4 56.1 58.0 52.9 59.4 59.5 56.3 59.4 55.3 58.5 53.5 56.0 59.6 65.7 68.9 56.1 64.0 66.1 63.4 72.3 72.7 71.4 74.2
Race and Hispanic origing
White, non-Hispanic 84.4 83.5 85.8 85.6 85.1 87.8 85.6 88.3 86.9 87.2 86.9 86.6 86.8 89.2 90.0 89.6 90.6 89.7 91.5 90.2 91.1 91.8 93.1 92.3
Black, non-Hispanic 77.7 76.5 75.1 78.2 74.3 78.5 77.2 82.3 81.2 78.1 84.6 84.6 85.0 87.0 89.5 90.3 86.5 88.6 89.9 92.9 88.4 92.0 92.9 90.0
American Indian or Alaska Native 75.2 89.2 66.4 73.6 81.6 76.4 73.1 84.0 80.8 84.7 94.4 85.5 73.2 79.8 90.7 96.0 85.2 98.4 88.9 86.8 88.5 94.9 ‡ ‡
American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic 75.0 90.8 64.1 80.5 80.1 75.7 75.0 ‡ 83.7 84.3 94.6 83.7 64.1 72.2 87.8 97.1 83.2 ‡ ‡ 80.7 ‡ 99.3 ‡ ‡
Asian 77.3 76.4 77.0 84.8 84.4 75.0 81.9 83.7 80.7 83.6 79.4 83.9 82.4 81.9 79.4 88.1 88.2 86.1 88.4 93.1 87.4 87.4 90.4 90.7
Asian, non-Hispanic 76.5 76.7 76.4 84.6 84.5 75.0 81.8 83.3 80.8 83.6 79.7 84.7 82.0 82.0 79.0 87.8 87.8 85.2 88.4 93.5 88.1 86.9 90.4 90.4
Two or more races — — 79.7 81.4 81.4 78.0 86.0 83.2 87.0 83.8 78.3 79.3 90.0 87.3 89.4 90.3 89.8 84.6 92.4 94.0 90.5 91.5 93.0 91.8
Hispanic 68.9 69.3 66.3 66.2 68.7 71.8 71.6 71.6 75.7 74.1 79.8 77.4 80.8 80.6 88.0 88.0 86.2 87.3 89.7 90.5 89.5 91.3 90.8 88.1
Ages 12–17
Total 77.4 79.8 78.6 80.2 79.7 80.7 81.4 82.4 81.6 82.8 82.5 83.7 82.8 84.1 85.4 86.5 86.6 86.9 88.4 87.4 88.0 89.6 90.3 88.0
Poverty statusc
Below 100% poverty 61.0 65.9 62.5 62.7 64.4 66.7 68.7 69.0 70.1 75.7 69.4 72.7 74.4 75.4 75.7 77.7 77.4 78.4 81.4 80.5 81.0 85.3 86.9 77.4
100%–199% poverty 62.9 68.1 66.3 68.3 70.6 72.0 72.3 73.3 73.1 74.0 73.1 74.9 74.4 77.0 81.1 81.7 80.2 80.5 84.4 80.3 80.8 83.5 85.8 84.7
200% poverty and above 86.6 87.4 86.7 88.2 86.4 86.8 87.4 88.9 87.4 88.1 89.2 89.4 88.4 89.3 90.2 91.1 91.7 92.3 92.1 92.1 92.2 92.7 92.9 91.7
Type of insuranced
Public insurancee, f 84.0 86.0 84.9 87.2 86.4 86.8 88.3 89.0 87.8 89.5 89.7 90.2 89.2 89.6 90.4 91.3 91.8 92.7 91.9 92.0 93.5 94.0 92.8 93.2
Public insurancee, f 74.6 74.7 74.1 74.1 70.4 73.5 76.6 75.7 78.3 80.4 77.2 81.6 80.5 82.5 84.0 85.5 84.1 82.7 86.9 85.5 84.2 87.6 91.2 85.3
No insurance 44.6 49.1 45.6 47.3 53.2 53.5 46.9 50.6 47.4 51.2 50.3 48.6 53.9 52.1 54.7 55.7 56.6 56.0 59.7 56.5 56.4 61.0 60.3 51.8
Race and Hispanic origing
White, non-Hispanic 82.6 84.9 83.5 85.8 85.2 86.6 87.1 87.7 87.1 87.5 87.2 88.5 86.9 87.2 88.1 89.7 89.9 90.3 90.5 89.5 91.1 91.7 91.2 89.5
Black, non-Hispanic 67.6 71.5 70.7 72.4 73.0 70.9 73.6 78.1 76.3 80.6 76.5 81.1 78.2 81.5 84.4 83.9 83.1 84.7 87.3 88.5 84.0 87.8 91.3 86.2
American Indian or Alaska Native 68.7 70.2 55.4 69.0 81.0 78.1 77.1 67.0 76.1 72.5 87.4 69.1 85.9 76.7 85.8 82.2 79.7 89.3 86.3 89.8 89.2 97.3 ‡ ‡
American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic 72.8 68.0 53.4 71.0 82.3 74.3 76.6 63.8 80.7 73.5 90.1 83.6 88.3 69.7 88.2 87.8 88.2 88.9 ‡ 92.6 ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡
Asian 74.6 72.5 78.9 78.6 81.5 74.5 81.7 75.8 71.7 81.8 78.8 79.9 81.8 82.3 85.0 82.5 84.8 83.2 87.6 84.2 88.3 90.0 89.8 87.3
Asian, non-Hispanic 74.8 72.2 79.0 78.5 81.3 77.5 80.7 75.6 71.9 81.7 78.7 79.1 81.6 81.4 84.4 82.1 86.5 82.4 87.2 83.3 87.5 90.6 90.8 87.0
Two or more races — — 81.2 71.5 74.8 82.1 76.5 86.4 82.2 85.5 84.2 85.7 83.4 84.4 83.1 83.6 84.1 85.4 85.0 84.5 85.3 89.4 93.2 94.0
Hispanic 62.3 65.3 65.1 65.5 63.2 65.7 67.7 68.9 69.1 69.1 72.9 72.1 73.9 77.6 79.2 81.4 81.1 81.5 84.9 84.0 84.0 85.8 87.4 85.7
— Not available.
‡ Reporting standards not met; estimates are considered unreliable.
a In 2019, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) questionnaire was redesigned. Although the wording of the question identifying dental visits in the past year changed slightly in 2019, this change did not impact the measurement of dental visits. However, due to other changes to weighting and design methodology starting with the 2019 NHIS, data for 2019 onward are not strictly comparable with data for earlier years. For more information on the 2019 NHIS redesign, see: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/2019_quest_redesign.htm.
b Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHIS data collection switched to a telephone-only mode beginning on March 19, 2020. Personal visits (with telephone attempts first) resumed in all areas in September 2020. Response rates were lower and respondent characteristics were different in April–December 2020. Differences observed in estimates between April–December 2020 and other time periods may have been impacted by these differences in respondent characteristics.
c Missing family income data were imputed for 19%–31% of children ages 2–17 in 1997–2020.
d Children with health insurance may or may not have dental coverage.
e Children with both public and private insurance coverage are placed in the private insurance category.
f Public health insurance for children consists mostly of Medicaid but also includes Medicare and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
g For the 1997–1998 race-specific estimates, the 1977 U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards for data on race and ethnicity were used to classify persons into one of the following four racial groups: White, Black, American Indian or Alaskan Native, or Asian or Pacific Islander. The revised 1997 OMB standards were used for the 1999–2014 race-specific estimates and classified persons into one or more of five racial groups: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. From 1999 onward, respondents could choose more than one race. Those reporting more than one race were classified as "Two or more races." Data on race and Hispanic origin are collected separately but are combined for reporting. Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. Included in the total but not shown separately are persons of Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander origin. Data from 1999 onward are not directly comparable with data from earlier years.
NOTE: From 1997–2000, children were identified as having a dental visit in the past year by asking parents, "About how long has it been since [child's name] last saw or talked to a dentist?" From 2001–2018, children were identified as having a dental visit in the past year by asking parents, "About how long has it been since [child's name] last saw a dentist?" Parents were directed to include all types of dentists, such as orthodontists, oral surgeons, and all other dental specialists, as well as dental hygienists. Starting in 2019, children are identified as having a dental visit in the past year by asking parents, "About how long has it been since [child's name] last had a dental examination or cleaning? Parents are directed to include cleanings from all types of dental care providers, such as dentists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, dental hygienists, and all other specialists.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey.

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