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OPEN WIDE: Oral Health Training for Health Professionals

Module 4: What to Do and How to Do It

Key Points

  • Primary care professionals, other health professionals, and early childhood professionals can promote oral health in the course of promoting general health for infants, children, and their families.
  • It is critical that professionals who have frequent contact with infants and children be able to help prevent or reduce the risk of tooth decay and to provide appropriate referrals to a dentist for early intervention and/or treatment.
  • Risk assessment is based on the premise that all infants and children are not equally likely to develop oral health problems.
  • Primary care professionals or other appropriately trained professionals, as determined by state practice acts or regulations, should perform an oral health screening of the lips, tongue, teeth, gums, inside of the cheeks, and roof of the mouth as part of any general health supervision visit.
  • Like all health information, oral health risk assessment results, clinical findings from the screening, and recommended follow-up should be recorded in an infant’s or child’s health record.
  • Professionals can provide anticipatory guidance to promote oral health to children and families. For parents of infants and children, anticipatory guidance topics include oral development, tooth eruption, gum/tooth cleaning, appropriate use of fluorides, bottle use, and feeding and eating practices. Because bacteria (S. mutans) can be transmitted from a parent, especially the mother, to an infant or child through contact, anticipatory guidance should also be provided to pregnant women, new mothers, and other intimate caregivers.