{"id":41120,"date":"2026-01-30T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=41120"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:33:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:33:01","slug":"oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW127270769 BCX4\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW127270769 BCX4\">The percentage of persons under 21 years of age who received a comprehensive or periodic oral evaluation with a dental provider during the measurement period.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW127270769 BCX4\" data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters?<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Oral examinations include physical examination, review of appropriate images and evaluation for risk of tooth decay. Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children in the United States. From 2015\u20132016, prevalence of total (untreated and treated) caries-related tooth decay was 46% for children 2\u201319 years <sup><a href=\"#ref-1\">1<\/a><\/sup>. Identifying caries early on is important to reverse the disease process, prevent progression of caries and reduce incidence of future lesions. In 2014, 52% of all children and 60% of children below the federal poverty level did not have a dental visit during the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Every year, more than 34 million school hours are lost due to unplanned (emergency) dental care. In 2017, there were 2.1 million dental-related ER visits (both children and adults); Medicaid paid for about 69% of these visits for children <sup><a href=\"#ref-2\">2<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) recommends that children receive their first clinical oral examination at the time of their first tooth eruption and no later than their first birthday <sup><a href=\"#ref-3\">3<\/a><\/sup>; thereafter, it is recommended that the frequency of examinations be based on the child\u2019s individual needs and susceptibility to disease. Recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also support an individualized approach to determining the frequency of dental checks. NICE recommends that the shortest interval between visits for children younger than 18 be no less than 3 months and no greater than 12 months <sup><a href=\"#ref-4\">4<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Adverse outcomes associated with untreated dental cavities can be numerous; they include pain, infection, increased ER visits and decreased quality of life <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup> <sup><a href=\"#ref-6\">6<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><i>This measure has been included in and\/or adapted for HEDIS with the permission of the Dental Quality Alliance (DQA) and American Dental Association (ADA). \u00a9 2024 DQA on behalf of ADA, all rights reserved.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons under 21 years of age who received a comprehensive or periodic oral evaluation with a dental provider during the measurement period.\u00a0 Why It Matters? Oral examinations include physical examination, review of appropriate images and evaluation for risk of tooth decay. Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41120","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NCQA\u2019s OED measure tracks dental evaluations for children under 21 to help detect tooth decay early and improve oral health outcomes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NCQA\u2019s OED measure tracks dental evaluations for children under 21 to help detect tooth decay early and improve oral health outcomes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T12:33:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/\",\"name\":\"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-30T12:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T12:33:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"NCQA\u2019s OED measure tracks dental evaluations for children under 21 to help detect tooth decay early and improve oral health outcomes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. Improving health care.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"National Committee for Quality Assurance\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"alternateName\":\"National Committee for Quality Assurance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg\",\"width\":876,\"height\":673,\"caption\":\"NCQA\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/NCQA\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ncqa_dc\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@NcqaOrg\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ncqa\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED) - NCQA","description":"NCQA\u2019s OED measure tracks dental evaluations for children under 21 to help detect tooth decay early and improve oral health outcomes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED) - NCQA","og_description":"NCQA\u2019s OED measure tracks dental evaluations for children under 21 to help detect tooth decay early and improve oral health outcomes.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/","og_site_name":"NCQA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org","article_modified_time":"2026-01-30T12:33:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@NCQA","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/","name":"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED) - NCQA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-01-30T12:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-30T12:33:01+00:00","description":"NCQA\u2019s OED measure tracks dental evaluations for children under 21 to help detect tooth decay early and improve oral health outcomes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/oral-evaluation-dental-services-oed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Report Cards","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Health Plans","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"State of Health Care Quality Report","item":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Oral Evaluation, Dental Services (OED)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/","name":"NCQA","description":"Measuring quality. Improving health care.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization"},"alternateName":"National Committee for Quality Assurance","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#organization","name":"NCQA","alternateName":"National Committee for Quality Assurance","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCQA-Blog-Logo-Thumbnail.jpg","width":876,"height":673,"caption":"NCQA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org","https:\/\/x.com\/NCQA","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ncqa_dc\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@NcqaOrg","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ncqa\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41120"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49448,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41120\/revisions\/49448"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}