Received Date: June 15, 2016; Accepted Date: June 24, 2016; Published Date: June 30, 2016
Citation: DiMarco MA, Fitzgerald K, Taylor E, Marino D,
Received Date: June 15, 2016; Accepted Date: June 24, 2016; Published Date: June 30, 2016
Citation: DiMarco MA, Fitzgerald K, Taylor E, Marino D, Huff M, et al. (2016) Improving Oral Health of Young Children: An Interprofessional Demonstration Project. Pediatr Dent Care 1:113. doi:10.4172/pdc.1000113
Copyright: © 2016 DiMarco MA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Introduction: The CDC report on oral health found that preschool children have increasing incidence of dental caries especially poor children. Profound disparities exist in dental services obtained by children, especially the poor. Objectives: The purpose of this project is to improve the oral health of vulnerable children via an interprofessional model through the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Methods: This project tested the feasibility of integrating primary preventive interventions of oral health assessments/teaching, fluoride varnishing and referral to a dental home into regular practice at an urban and rural WIC site using nurses, registered dieticians and students. Results: After three years, 4091 children were enrolled and received fluoride varnish. Children who were seen by the nurse/dietician at the urban or rural WIC sites were found to have more children seeking dental services through a dentist between the 2nd and 3rd WIC visits (p<0.001). Children at both sites increased their brushing or cleaning their child’s teeth between the first and second visits (p<0.05 for the rural site; p<0.001 for the urban site). Conclusion: Interprofessional cooperation along with a community based approach is needed to tackle this increasing problem of early childhood dental caries.
Oral health; Fluoride varnish; WIC; Preschool children; Interprofessional
Our nation’s children are suffering! They are suffering from dental decay. The Surgeon General declared dental caries the “Silent Epidemic”. Profound disparities exist in dental services obtained by children, especially the poor. Even when providing dental services, children with Medicaid were statistically less likely to be treated by a dentist than those with private insurance, comparatively at percentages of 55% versus 68%. Poor and/or minority families are affected most  with preschool children having increasing rates of dental caries compared to other age groups. Approximately 23% of children aged 2–11 years have one or more untreated tooth decays and 20% of adolescents aged 12–19 years have one or more permanent tooth decays3. The American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry among others suggest the ideal standard is to establish a dental home by one year of age. Of particular concern is the low rate of early detection and preventive care for 3 year old and younger children eligible for Medicaid due to a shortage of dentists who accept Medicaid and who are willing to treat children. The CDC report on oral health found that preschool children have increasing incidence of dental caries with the prevalence of dental caries even higher in lower-income families3. Poor children have higher rates of dental disease compared to other children and their lack of access to dental care and untreated dental conditions can contribute to poor health, dysfunctional speech, compromised growth, and poor educational performance [4,5].
Successful primary prevention helps avoid the suffering, cost and burden associated with disease. It is considered one of the most cost-effective practices of health care. Therefore, an interprofessional primary prevention approach in a community setting, serving children and their caregivers focusing on dental education, oral hygiene skills, fluoride varnish application and referral to dental home is one means to manage this epidemic in low income children.
Children who receive early preventive dental care have 40% lower dental costs over their lifetime than those who do not receive this care. Numerous studies demonstrate the value of applying fluoride varnish to children’s teeth as a means of decreasing the i