title: Bexar County's dental safety net for children: an estimate of our capacity and need.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It has been well established that poor uninsured children lack access to dental care and have greater dental needs than their insured counterparts.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the capacity of the Bexar County dental safety net to treat children. To assess the dental needs of Bexar County children ages 0-18 who are uninsured or are Medicaid or Texas Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) recipients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Dental clinics that treat children ages 0-18 and act as the safety net were identified in order to assess their capacity to treat children. Clinic directors were contacted to request data on the number of child patient encounters per clinic for 2005. Data from the census, NHANES and other sources were used to establish an estimate of the dental needs of the uninsured and Medicaid/CHIP children. The dental needs of this population were calculated as maximum possible number of patient encounters per year.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The capacity of the current safety net to treat children is 33,537 patient encounters per year. The dental needs of the community are 227,124 patient encounters per year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the study suggest that the Bexar County is not prepared to treat the dental needs of the underserved children in San Antonio.
authors.affiliation: carlosmohamed@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Carlos N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Spears
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003740:Dental Clinics; D006295:Health Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008484:Medicaid; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States