The Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico. Photo from Indian Health Service
Nearly 70 percent of children on the Navajo Nation suffer from untreated tooth decay, according to a recent study. Researchers looked at health records of 981 children on the reservation. Of those, 89.3 percent had oral disease in the past and 69.5 percent had untreated tooth decay, compared to 20.48 percent of the general population. "The oral health among Native Americans is abysmal with more than three times the disease of the rest of the country," Terrence Batliner, the associate director of the Center for Native Oral Health Research at the Colorado School of Public Health, said in a press release. The study was published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry. Get the Story:
Press Release: Study finds widespread oral health problems among Navajo (University of Colorado Denver 7/8)
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