TABLE 1—

Baseline Characteristics of North Carolina Medicaid Enrollees in Kindergarten During 2005–2006

Variable Descriptiona	Full Sample (n = 5235), % or Mean (SD)	Children With Both Dentist and IMB Visits (n = 848), % or Mean (SD)	Children With ≥ 2 Dentist Visits Only (n = 480), % or Mean (SD)	Children With ≥ 2 IMB Visits Only (n = 3907), % or Mean (SD)
Clinical outcome variables
dmft score*	2.25 (3.28)	3.00 (3.66)	3.40 (3.98)	1.95 (3.03)
Percentage with any dmft	48.2	57.9	59.4	44.7
Proportion of dt/dmft among children with dmft*	0.39 (0.46)	0.26 (0.40)	0.15 (0.32)	0.47 (0.47)
Child-level characteristics
Number of months enrolled in Medicaid	32.3 (2.7)	32.7 (1.9)	32.7 (1.6)	32.2 (2.9)
Race
White	38.5	36.4	34.4	39.4
Black	41.8	42.7	42.1	41.6
Hispanic ethnicity	8.4	11.9	14.2	7
Male	51.8	53.4	50	51.6
Special health care needs	4.3	4.5	2.5	4.5
Number of well-child visits before age 3 y	4.9 (1.5)	4.9 (1.6)	4.0 (2.2)	5.0 (1.4)
Any caries-related treatments before age 3 y	10.4	31	39.2	2.4
Any oral health services received in public clinic before age 3 y	30	42.2	29.2	27.4
County-level characteristics
Medicaid eligible < 18 y per 10 000 people	493.2 (142.8)	452.8 (124.4)	417.7 (123.5)	511.2 (144.0)
Primary care providers per 10 000 people	4.1 (1.7)	4.1 (2.0)	4.5 (1.8)	4.0 (1.6)
Dentists per 10 000 people	3.5 (1.5)	3.8 (1.7)	4.6 (1.7)	3.3 (1.4)

Note. dmft = number of decayed, missing, and filled primary teeth; dt = untreated decayed teeth; IMB = Into the Mouths of Babes program. Kruskal–Wallis tests examined differences in dmft and dt/dmft among children with IMB visits, dentist visits, or both.

^aExplanatory variables included in the regression models, but not presented in this table include the rural or urban status of the child’s county of residence and the percentage of the county population with fluoridated drinking water.

*P < .001.