Determining the relationship between the type of insurance of 7-12 year old children and their dental health status in Tehran

Oral and dental problems are preventable with regular examinations. Among the barriers to utilizing health services, lack of financial resources is too important. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the type of insurance of 7-12 year old children and their dental health status in Tehran.

In this study 456 students were selected from 10 schools in 5 districts of Tehran. The study was conducted on 4 groups of health insurance: Medical services insurance fund (MSIF), social security insurance organization (SSIO), military insurance and supplemental insurance. At the first visit the questionnaires were given to the students and completed by the parents. At the next visit, the children were examined and dft (decayed, filled primary teeth) and DMFT (Decayed, Missing, Filled permanent teeth) indices were recorded. Then the relationship between insurance type and these indices were investigated using One-way ANOVA and Tukey.

The d and f indices in the primary teeth were correlated with the type of insurance respectively p<0.001, p=0.003; but there was not significant relation between dft index and any of the insurance groups (p=0.582). F and DMFT indices in permanent teeth were correlated with type of insurance (p = 0.035 and p <0.001, respectively) but no significant difference was found between D index and insurance groups (p = 0.504). No significant difference was observed in the number of fissure sealants in the four insurance groups (p = 0.094) but in the number of SSCs there was a significant difference (p <0.001) and in the military insurance was more than the other three insurances.

Type of the insurances of primary school students in Tehran has impact on their dental health.