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or if they do, the co-pays are so high that dental care often comes last, or only when the kids have a toothache.
same goes for vision care.
Way back in "olden times" (when I was in grade school), we had dentists and optometrists come to the school & give us all cursory check-ups.. polio shots/oral vaccine at school too.
Back then we also all got checks for scoliosis.
They lined us up, checked us, and sent home the results to our parents
Or was that a different 'olden times'? 
way to embarrass the kiddies about their bad brushing techniques.. We all got a new toothbrush too
Even the good brushers had red-ish teeth going on.
Yep, toothbrush and toothpaste.
Sheeit, I was so tired of this particular bit of ignorance I had to counter with my children. 3 out of 4 of my kids required dental surgery (ie, fillings, caps and extractions under general anesthesia) by the time they were 3. 2 out of 4 had severe decay. All had cavities. All have had an absess (thanks to their 'solution' of caps that have a 50% chance of absessing). With my first 3 all I heard was 'you need to not breastfeed them when they are asleep. You need to not breastfeed them at night' etc. Funny, how my one child who didn't need surgery nursed at night more than all the other ones. The only difference was she wasn't very demonstrative so didn't kiss us as much. Apparently, that strep mutans bacteria gets transferred from the parents to the child from things like kissing, 'testing' food, cleaning off a paci by sucking on it, etc. In fact, I didn't have any cavities at all, ever, growing up and when I got together with my children's father, suddenly I had cavities constantly. WTF?
Later on I found out that he probably carried the bacteria, passed it to me and I passed it to our children. Add into that non-flouridated water and a genetic predisposition for malformed teeth (on my kids' dad's side) and my kids had teeth that ERUPTED rotten. Where I live I had a public health nurse that did dental for kids at risk and she says she had never quite seen anything like my youngest child's teeth. One month they were under the gums, the next month they were erupted and rotting away. So I asked her, just to 'test' her, "Could that possibly be from night nursing?" and she laughed and said, "GOD no. And don't let anyone ever tell you that either." She said it was likely when the teeth were forming when I was pregnant.
The solution for decay? Flouride varnish. Not the stuff the dentists give you, it's more like a resin that is 'painted' on the teeth and it sticks to the teeth for a day or so. My kids started getting flouride varnish (given out here at the health unit for kids at risk of decay) and the rate of decay slowed dramatically. As in, only a couple of cavities in the years since the varnish. My youngest had her 1 year bottom molars come in rotted (as aforementioned) but her front teeth were beautiful and strong, so the nurse said there is no way her decay had to do with nursing. We kept up the varnish and she's only ever needed those particular molars fixed, everything else has been fine except for an absess from the capped molar, so that got pulled, but didn't require a general anesthesia. But no extra cavities at all on any of her other non-malformed teeth. And since we've moved to an area that now has flouridated water, we've had zero problems.
I did a lot of research about breastfeeding and cavities after my first child's dental surgery and found out that most kids never have an issue. It CAN cause an issue if the teeth are not brushed with flouride toothpaste as they erupt, but I always brused my kids' teeth with flouride toothpaste, I even bought kids' type flouridated rinse and my babies had their mouths often wiped out with a washcloth after they fell asleep at the breast. I was super careful with all of my kids, especially after my first who lost all of her front teeth with her surgery.
Oh, and I'd like to add that while my kids breastfed for a long time, they never walked around with sippy cups full of juice. They all don't particularly care for juice, and I never fed them sugary things. So I think the cause of the rise has a lot to do with lack of insurance and preventative care, as well as the addition of sugar in even traditionally 'non-sugary' foods and also a reduced use of anti-biotics. Plus, when I was younger it was a big thing for kids to go in and get 'sealants'. Now it's hard to find dentists that even DO sealants, because it's not good business if your clients get preventative care and don't need you to fill their cavities anymore. 
It's probably a lot of issues that are all converging at the same time causing the rate of cavities to go up.
