Monday, April 10, 2006
A Survey on Dental care access conducted by researchers at University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College presents a sad picture of the dental needs and cause barriers to dental care faced by seniors.
The sobering results showed only 11 percent of 273 respondents had dental insurance. Not surprisingly out of them 52 percent blamed financial need as the greatest barrier to have dental care.
"Little is known about the dental care needs of urban-versus-rural-dwelling seniors in this part of New York State," said Zittel-Palamara. "Earlier research indicated that seniors who live in rural areas have less access to dental care than urban-dwelling contemporaries.
The survey by the researchers were administered to attendees at senior center and nutrition sites in the eight countries of Western New York by social work graduate dental student, faculty and staff. One-third of respondents were of urbal areas and two-third of rural area. The median age was 74.
Results showed that access to dental care was rated "fair-to-poor" by 1 in 3 respondents. Nearly three-fourths -- 71 percent -- of urban dwellers indicated they had seen a dentist within the past year, compared to 58 percent of rural dwellers. Twenty percent of rural dwellers and 15 percent of urban dwellers had not seen a dentist for six or more years.
Zittel-Palamara said" the ultimate goal of the study is to encourage dentists to integrate social workers and other disciplines into their practices to help senior patients obtain better access to dental care". In addition, the study aims to spur development of programs to help seniors get dental insurance, she said, and to establish the need for a mobile dental van to serve local senior-center sites.
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