Oral health for children

By Maria Perno Goldie, RDH, MS
The American Dental Association (ADA) has declared February as National Children's Dental Health Month (NCDHM).(1) This is an annual event each February, and the goal is to raise awareness about the importance of oral health. Messages and materials for children’s oral health are available for communities across the country. The focus is on developing good habits at an early age and scheduling regular oral health care visits to help children with a lifetime of healthy teeth and gums. This year the campaign's slogan is "ROCK YOUR SMILE". Flossy and Buck McGrinn are featured. A poster is available in English and Spanish. There is also a planning guide. The NCDHM Program Planning Guide offers program coordinators, dental societies, teachers and parents resources to promote the benefits of good oral health to children. The guide includes easy-to-do activities, program planning timetable tips, a sample NCDHM proclamation, and much, much more. Posters are available in English and Spanish.(2)

In a recent Sunstar Newsletter, the topic was Children’s Oral Health under Siege.(3) The opinion of two experts interviewed agreed that there is confusion about the age of a child’s first dental visit. It is recommended that the first dental visit be age 1, but the message is not well known to some dental and medical professionals.(4) The risks created by delaying the first dental visit beyond age one are important, and could be a threat to children’s oral health. For more information on children’s oral health, visit the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.(5) “The mission of the AAPD is to advocate policies, guidelines, and programs that promote optimal oral health and oral health care for infants and children through adolescence, including those with special health care needs.”(6) Treating children involves inaction with the child and their parent or caregiver. Some clinicians feel it is advantageous to ask the parent or caregiver to leave the room if the child’s behavior is bad. However, many clinicians feel more comfortable with the parents in the room. For assistance in this area, see the Guideline on Behavior Guidance for the Pediatric Dental Patient.(7) At the 2011 American Academy of Physician Assistants' 39th Annual Meeting, dental health was stated as the most common unmet health need, and that it can severely affect systemic health. Disparities in oral health and access to care exist in all ages, but especially in the young, elderly, and uninsured.(8) Smiles for Life, a comprehensive national curriculum developed by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Group on Oral Health, outlines the role that primary care pediatric clinicians play in maintaining children's oral health.(9) Smiles for Life was established in October 2005 to address a need for high-quality residency and medical school curricula in an area of documented physician knowledge deficit. During regular well-child visits, primary-care clinicians normally see children eight times more often than the dentist or other oral health care professional does, and they have a real opportunity to make a difference in these children. A risk-factor assessment will dictate how the child should be treated. Recommendations state that the dental home be established in the first year of a child's life, and if the patient has limited access to dental care, the primary-care clinician has to take a more active role in prevention.(8) Nutrition is also very important in our discussion about health. Good oral health and good nutrition go hand-in-hand. Discussing a recent study, the authors stated that added sweeteners pose dangers to health that justify controlling them like alcohol.(10) The authors admit that food, unlike alcohol and tobacco, is required for survival. However, they say that taxes, zoning ordinances and even age limits for purchasing certain sugar-filled products are all suitable actions for the problem posed by sugar. In a New York Times article, author Lustig blamed our excessive consumption of sugar as the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years.(11) He believes that sugar is also the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles, such as heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers among them. And we know the role of sugar in tooth decay.