According to a 2006 report by the Brown County Oral Health Partnership:
- Dental cavities are the most common chronic childhood disease
- Untreated cavities in children can be associated with growth, learning and speech problems and can result in costly emergency room visits
- Twenty percent of the populations had 80 percent of the decay
- Among 5- to 7-year-olds, tooth decay is five times as common as a reported history of asthma and seven times as common as hay fever
- Despite progress in reducing tooth decay, individuals living below the poverty level experience more dental decay than who are economically better off
- In addition to poverty level, the proportion of teeth affected by tooth decay varies by age and race/ethnicity