Millions of children have untreated tooth decay

-- Millions of poor American children have untreated tooth decay, some of them because they cannot find a dentist willing to treat them, a federal report issued Tuesday said.
Only 1 in 3 children in Medicaid received any dental care over a year time span, according to a new report.

Only 1 in 3 children in Medicaid received any dental care over a year time span, according to a new report.

"Dental disease remains a significant problem for children aged 2 through 18 in Medicaid," the U.S. Government Accountability Office report concluded, referring to the federal/state health program for poor people.

According to the report, which used data from 1999 to 2004, about 6.5 million children enrolled in Medicaid had untreated tooth decay in 2005 and were nearly twice as likely as children with private health insurance to have untreated tooth decay.

The GAO report was ordered after widespread publicity of the case of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old boy boy who died last year in suburban Washington when an untreated infected tooth led to a brain infection.

Driver "had extensive dental disease and his family was unable to find a dentist to treat him," the report said.

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