PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island ranked No. 12 in the United States for its dental health in a recent WalletHub study, “2019’s States with the Best & Worst Dental Health,” showing superior access to dental care and low sugary drink consumption, while scoring among the highest for dental treatment cost.
According to the report, Rhode Island has one of the lowest shares of the population who couldn’t afford more dental visits due to cost at 37 percent, two times lower than in Georgia, the highest, at 74 percent.
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The report ranked Rhode Island third in the U.S. for the percentage of adults who have seen a dentist in the last year, at 75.7 percent. It also ranked Rhode Island first for its state oral health plan, school based dental sealant programs and for providing Medicaid dental benefits for non-elderly adults.
WalletHub reports that about 15 percent of children aged 2-17 nationally have not seen a dentist in the past year. Rhode Island ranked fifth on this measure, with 78 percent of children seeing a dentist within the last year, according to the report.
There was some less positive news for the Ocean State in the report, which ranked it No. 46 among states for dental treatment cost.
Wisconsin ranked the best in the U.S. for dental health and Arkansas was worst at 51. Neighboring Massachusetts ranked ninth in the country.
To determine which states have the healthiest teeth and gums in the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 26 metrics. The data set ranges from share of adolescents who visited a dentist in the past year to dental treatment costs to share of adults with low life satisfaction due to oral condition.
WalletHub collected the data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Health Care Strategies, Healthy Grid, American Dental Association, Health Resources & Services Administration, United Health Foundation, Free Dental Care, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and Oral Health America.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
