Table.

Characteristics of North Carolina Medicaid Enrollees Aged 3 to 5 Yr (N = 41,453)

		Provider of Preventive Oral Health Services before 3 Yr of Age
Variable	All (N = 41,453)	Dentist Visits Only (n = 4,196)	PCP Visits Only (n = 29,642)	Dentist + PCP Visits (n = 7,615)
Dependent variables
Percentage of children with any CRT between ages 3 to 5 yr*	33	51.8	26.7	47.6
Annual no. of dental treatments*	1.05 ± 3.10	1.48 ± 3.17	0.87 ± 2.96	1.52 ± 3.48
Annual payment for dental treatment*	$197 ± $894	$234 ± $853	$172 ± $1865	$273 ± $1018
Explanatory variables
Child-level characteristics
No. of preventive oral health visits before age 3 yr*	2.77 ± 0.90	2.29 ± 0.53	2.69 ± 0.78	3.30 ± 1.21
No. of mo enrolled in Medicaid per yr*
3 yr of age	11.3 ± 1.8	11.3 ± 1.8	11.3 ± 1.8	11.3 ± 1.7
4 yr of age	9.3 ± 3.8	9.2 ± 3.9	9.3 ± 3.8	9.1 ± 3.9
5 yr of age	8.5 ± 4.0	8.6 ± 3.9	8.5 ± 4.0	8.2 ± 4.0
Race (%)*
White	36.2	29.4	37.8	33.8
Black	39.1	39.3	39.1	39
Hispanic ethnicity (%)*	14.4	20.1	12.6	18.2
Male (%)	51.5	51.1	51.3	52.8
Child has special health care needs (%)	4	3.4	4.1	3.8
No. of well-child visits before 3 yr of age*	4.7 ± 1.4	3.9 ± 1.9	4.8 ± 1.3	4.6 ± 1.4
Any dental services received in a public clinic (%)*	12.9	10.4	12.6	15.4
Year*
2004	26.7	27	27.6	22.7
2005	52.9	52	53.9	49.5
2006	89.7	88.3	89.5	91.4
County-level characteristics (per 10,000 population)
Medicaid eligible < 18 yr*	0.2 ± 0.1	0.2 ± 0.1	0.2 ± 0.1	0.2 ± 0.1
Dentists*	3.9 ± 1.8	5.2 ± 1.8	3.6 ± 1.6	4.3 ± 1.9
Primary care providers*	4.4 ± 1.9	5.1 ± 2.0	4.2 ± 1.8	4.6 ± 2.1

Values in mean ± standard deviation or percentage. Explanatory variables not presented in this table include the rural/urban status of the child’s county of residence and the percentage of the county population with fluoridated drinking water.

PCP, primary care provider; CRT, caries-related treatment.

^* p < .001; p values by analysis of variance for continuous variables and chi-square test for binary/categorical variables.