Bright Futures, a national health promotion initiative at Georgetown University, has published
Bright Futures in Practice: Oral Health, a comprehensive guide that addresses the oral health needs of children and adolescents from birth to age 21. The guide presents specific guidelines on current oral health promotion and disease prevention, as well as preventive strategies and tools.
Bright Futures in Practice: Oral Health is designed for health professionals and educators, including dentists, dental hygienists, physicians, nurses, dietitians, teachers, and child care providers.
The guide includes sections on oral health supervision guidelines, risk assessment, measuring outcomes, making oral health supervision accessible, and essentials of oral health. Topics covered include:
- Dental caries
- Baby bottle tooth decay and early childhood caries
- Eating disorders and dental caries
- Periodontal disease
- Control of caries and periodontal disease
- Oral hygiene
- Fluoride
- Dental sealants
- Dietary habits and oral health
- Malocclusion
- Nonnutritive sucking habits
- Tobacco use and oral health
- Smoking
- Spit tobacco
- Injury
- Prevention
- Trauma management
To download the book, go to http://www.brightfutures.org/oralhealth/pdf/index.html.
Sidebar: What Bright Futures in Practice Says About:
Dental caries: "Despite remarkable declines in the prevalence of dental caries in children, over half of all children have caries in their baby teeth by first grade and the overwhelming majority experience caries in their permanent teeth by high school graduation. The personal and public costs of failing to address this preventable disease are high. Dental caries still produces significant morbidity in children, such as dental pain and infection, leading to missed school days. Even toddlers and young children suffer the effects of severe carious lesions, including difficulty eating, speech dysfluency, and both chronic and acute pain. Children and adolescents who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or who are members of certain ethnic groups experience disproportionately higher prevalence and severity of dental caries, and frequently have less access to care."
Baby bottle tooth decay: "Putting the baby to bed with a bottle or allowing the baby to suck 'at will' can lead to baby bottle tooth
decay - a rapidly advancing, severe form of early childhood caries that puts a child at greater risk for future
caries... An estimated 5 to 10 percent of all children experience some degree of BBTD, and some populations of Native American children are affected to a far greater degree."
Dietary habits and oral health: "The role of diet in oral health is twofold. First, foods consumed contribute to the health of the mouth as well as to overall health. Calcium and vitamin D are vital for strong bones and teeth and vitamin C is necessary for healthy gums, though it is difficult to quantify the optimal level needed by each
child... Second, eating habits have a direct effect on dental caries. When food is consumed, mutans streptococci are able to break down carbohydrates (sugars) in the mouth, creating the acid that is responsible for tooth decay. The ability of a specific food to contribute to caries depends on how well it adheres to the tooth surface and how frequently it is consumed."
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