American journal of preventive medicine
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Healthy People 2020 includes a goal of increasing use of preventive dental care among children from low-income families. The services used to define preventive care are evidence-based services (i.e., dental sealants and professionally applied topical fluoride) and professional dental cleaning, which lacks evidence of effectiveness in preventing caries. This study examined how increasing preventive dental care use and reducing disparities by race/ethnicity among children from low-income families varied by the services included in case definitions of preventive dental care use. ⋯ Case definitions of preventive dental care that include non-evidence-based services may overstate receipt of effective preventive dental care and reductions in certain racial/ethnic disparities.