Annual Dental Visits (%)
Leading health experts stress that oral health is integral to general health and well-being. Poor oral health and untreated oral conditions can result in irreversible dental decay, and also put women at risk for conditions such as heart disease.1 Annual dental visits are an important aspect of maintaining good oral health. Dental check-ups can detect early signs of oral health problems and can prompt the use of treatments that reverse these problems or prevent further damage from occurring.2
What percentage of women have had a dental visit within the past year?
The Report Card benchmark is the Healthy People 2010 goal of increasing the percentage of children and adults using the oral health care system each year to 56 percent (when applied to women) [Healthy People 2010 Objective 21-10].
| State | State Overall Data | State Grade | State Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 63.9 | S | 44 |
| Alaska | 69.6 | S | 33 |
| Arizona | 67.4 | S | 38 |
| Arkansas | 63.6 | S | 45 |
| California | 70.0 | S | 32 |
| Colorado | 70.4 | S | 29 |
| Connecticut | 80.7 | S | 1 |
| Delaware | 77.3 | S | 5 |
| District of Columbia | 72.1 | S | 25 |
| Florida | 69.3 | S | 36 |
| Georgia | 71.3 | S | 26 |
| Hawaii | 75.4 | S | 12 |
| Idaho | 71.1 | S | 27 |
| Illinois | 70.7 | S | 28 |
| Indiana | 69.6 | S | 33 |
| Iowa | 75.8 | S | 11 |
| Kansas | 72.3 | S | 23 |
| Kentucky | 67.0 | S | 40 |
| Louisiana | 67.4 | S | 38 |
| Maine | 72.7 | S | 22 |
| Maryland | 72.3 | S | 23 |
| Massachusetts | 79.0 | S | 3 |
| Michigan | 77.0 | S | 7 |
| Minnesota | 77.0 | S | 7 |
| Mississippi | 60.3 | S | 50 |
| Missouri | 63.5 | S | 46 |
| Montana | 67.6 | S | 37 |
| Nebraska | 73.2 | S | 20 |
| Nevada | 63.4 | S | 47 |
| New Hampshire | 77.5 | S | 4 |
| New Jersey | 76.2 | S | 10 |
| New Mexico | 65.6 | S | 42 |
| New York | 74.6 | S | 15 |
| North Carolina | 69.5 | S | 35 |
| North Dakota | 76.3 | S | 9 |
| Ohio | 74.5 | S | 16 |
| Oklahoma | 60.0 | S | 51 |
| Oregon | 70.3 | S | 30 |
| Pennsylvania | 73.0 | S | 21 |
| Rhode Island | 79.2 | S | 2 |
| South Carolina | 66.9 | S | 41 |
| South Dakota | 75.0 | S | 13 |
| Tennessee | 64.9 | S | 43 |
| Texas | 61.0 | S | 49 |
| Utah | 74.2 | S | 17 |
| Vermont | 77.3 | S | 5 |
| Virginia | 73.9 | S | 19 |
| Washington | 74.2 | S | 17 |
| West Virginia | 63.3 | S | 48 |
| Wisconsin | 75.0 | S | 13 |
| Wyoming | 70.1 | S | 31 |
Data Source: Annual Dental Visits (%), 2008.
EXPLANATION: This measure includes women age 18 and older in the non-institutionalized civilian population who reported visiting the dentist or dental clinic within the past year for any reason.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data (BRFSS), 2008, available at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/index.asp and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Public Health and Science, Office on Women’s Health. Quick Health Data Online, 2010, Washington, DC, 2010, available at http://www.womenshealth.gov/quickhealthdata. The national overall number and national data by age are the median of 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data for race/ethnicity and age are single-year data from 2008 and are age-adjusted to the 2000 standard population.
Footnotes
1 K.J. Joshipura, “Poor Oral Health and Coronary Heart Disease,” in J Dent Res 75, (1996), 1631.
2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Oral Health for Adults,” (Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, December, 2006), available at http://198.246.98.21/OralHealth/publications/factsheets/adult.htm
