School Hours Lost Due to Acute/Unplanned Dental Care

Objective: We estimated the school-hours lost for acute/unplanned dental care and examined the associated factors among children aged 5-17 years using 2008 National Health Interview Survey data. Methods: We used bivariate and multivariate regression models to investigate the associations between school hours lost and socioeconomic and oral health factors (p < .05). Results: Acute/unplanned dental care accounted for a loss of 34 million school-hours annually. Compared to children with very good oral health, children with fair/poor oral health were 2.8 times more likely to lose ≥1 hours. Children in high-income families had 31% less likelihood of losing any school hours due to acute dental care than those in low-income families. Conclusion: Numerous school-hours are lost due to acute/unplanned dental care and socioeconomic disparities exist in those lost hours.