No abstract

Background:The government launched a pilot project for health insurance for children's dentists as one of the measures to expand preventive-oriented essential oral health care services for 3 years from May 2021. We will examine the pilot project targets and project contents of child dentists and analyze the general characteristics between regions subject to the pilot project and children in non-targeted areas to find out whether there are differences between regions. Methods: This study is a prospective cohort study that lasts for 3 years in a pilot project. The subjects of the experimental group were children in the fourth grade of elementary school living in Sejong city and Gwangju metropolitan city, which participated in the pilot project, and the control group was children in the fourth grade of A elementary school located in Wonju city, which did not participate in the pilot project. Results: The main results were that there was no regional difference in the general characteristics of the children in the experimental group and the control group. In the comparison of the oral health level, the oral health level was higher in the control group than in the experimental group, but there was no statistically significant difference. Conclusion:This thesis is a long-term study that starts from the first year of the pilot project and continues until the end. Effect evaluation will be carried out for three years as a pilot project, and through long-term research, we believe that it will be an opportunity to confirm the actual outcomes of the children's dentistry health insurance business and to expand the children's dentistry business.