Bright Futures Toolbox for Professionals

Bright Futures Toolbox: Health Professionals and Human Services Providers

Bright Futures
Education and Training
Screening/Risk Assessment Tools
Anticipatory Guidance
Posters
Public Education
Multimedia

Bright Futures
	Bright Futures in Practice: Oral Health—Pocket Guide
		National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center This guide is designed to help health professionals implement specific oral health guidelines during pregnancy and the postpartum period, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.
	View the guide online	Download the guide

	Bright Futures Health Supervision Guidelines (3rd ed.) American Academy of Pediatrics The guidelines provide child-health-promotion information and guidance for health professionals, from pediatricians to public health officials to school nurses.
Oral Health

Education and Training		see also Head Start Oral Health Curricula at-a-Glance
	A Health Professional's Guide to Pediatric Oral Health Management National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center This curriculum provides information on performing oral screenings to identify infants and children at increased risk for oral health problems, offering referrals to oral health professionals, and providing parents with anticipatory guidance.

	Dental Health Screening and Fluoride Varnish Application University of Minnesota This course covers the etiology and prevention of tooth decay, strategies for prevention, oral health screening and examination, the fluoride varnish application procedure, and the billing process.

	Health and Safety in the Child Care Setting: Promoting Children's Oral Health—A Curriculum for Health Professionals and Child Care Providers California Childcare Health Program This curriculum is written for health professionals and child care providers in California to promote oral health for infants and young children. Lessons address oral development, oral habits, health and oral hygiene, fluoridation, diet and nutrition, and injury prevention and care.

	Open Wide: Oral Health Training for Health Professionals National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center This series of four modules is designed to help health and early childhood professionals (for example, Head Start and WIC staff) working in community settings promote oral health, with information about tooth decay, risk factors, prevention, and anticipatory guidance to share with parents.

	Partners in Prevention: Getting a Head Start on Oral Health—An Infant/Toddler Oral Health Continuing Education Course New York University, College of Dentistry, Department of Pediatric Dentistry; New York Head Start Association This continuing education course is designed for Head Start staff. Topics include prenatal care, pregnancy and oral health; oral pathology of the infant and young child; oral manifestation of systemic disease, tooth formation, eruption, and teething; nutritive and non-nutritive sucking; acquisition of the oral flora; oral hygiene and preventing early childhood caries; fluoride benefits; diet and nutrition; orofacial trauma and child abuse; simple rules for good oral health; and a summary of anticipatory guidance.

	Planning Guide for Dental Professionals Serving Children with Special Health Care Needs University of Southern California University Affiliated Program, Children's Hospital Los Angeles This guide promotes a framework within which oral health professionals can communicate and work with families to ensure that children receive appropriate, high-quality oral health care.

	Practical Oral Care for People with Developmental Disabilities: Making a Difference National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research This series of publications is designed to equip oral health professionals with information on delivering high-quality oral health care to people with special health care needs. Strategies for care covering topics such as mobility, neuromuscular and behavioral problems, sensory impairment, and other treatment considerations are discussed in the context of the general dental office setting.

	Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum (3rd ed.) Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Group on Oral Health This curriculum comprises seven modules covering core areas of oral health. Topics include oral and systemic health, child oral health, adult oral health, acute oral health problems, oral health and pregnant women, fluoride varnish, and the oral examination. The modules may be completed online or downloaded and are suitable for individual or small-group education.

	Special Care: An Oral Health Professional's Guide to Serving Young Children with Special Health Care Needs National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center
	This continuing education (CE) course provides oral health professionals with information to ensure that young children with special health care needs have access to health-promotion and disease-prevention services that address their unique oral health needs in a comprehensive, family-centered, and community-based manner. Four CE credits through the Department of Health and Human Services' Indian Health Service or through the American Dental Hygienists' Association will be awarded upon successful completion of the course.


Screening/Risk Assessment
	Guidelines for Oral Health Screening in Ohio's Schools Ohio Department of Health, Oral Health Section These guidelines guide school nurses in conducting oral screenings for students. Topics covered include which grades should participate, preparation for screening, infection control, disposal procedure, screening setup and technique, confidentiality, and documenting oral observations.

	Oral Conditions in Children with Special Needs: A Guide for Health Care Providers California Connections Project This guide provides full-color photographs of oral conditions, each accompanied by descriptive text and a recommendation for health professionals who encounter the condition. Conditions include tooth eruption, malocclusion, tooth anomalies, developmental defects, viral infections, gingival infections, dental caries, oral trauma, bruxism (tooth grinding), and gingival overgrowth resulting from medications.

	Oral Health Risk Assessment Tool and Tool Guidance; Online Tutorial Children's Oral Health, American Academy of Pediatrics This tool was pilot tested in pediatricians' offices by multidisciplinary teams of pediatric health professionals and found to be easy to implement, taking just 2 minutes during the well-child visit.

	Oral Health Risk Assessment Timing and Establishment of the Dental Home American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Pediatric Dentistry This policy statement focuses on guidelines for the identification of pregnant women and children at high risk for dental caries.

	Pediatric Office Guide to Oral Health Care Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center This guide helps primary care physicians check for early childhood caries. Topics include toothbrushing, toothpaste, healthy food choices, fluoride, and helping physicians talk with parents about oral health. Pictures illustrate what to look for during visual inspection, and descriptions of the appearance of mild, moderate, and severe tooth decay are included.

	Pediatric Oral Health Guide for the Primary Care Provider Whatcom County (Washington) Health Department This guide offers primary care health professionals information on oral health issues, education, assessment, and referral for infants and young children, including assessment of all children by age 1 for dental caries risk; fluoride supplements, toothpaste, and fluoride varnish; and tips for parents.

	Guideline on Caries-Risk Assessment and Management for Infants, Children, and Adolescents American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry This guideline is intended to educate health care providers and others on the assessment of caries risk in contemporary pediatric dentistry and to aid in clinical decision-making about diagnostic, fluoride, dietary, and restorative protocols.

	Professionally Applied Topical Fluoride: Decision-Support Tool Council on Scientific Affairs, American Dental Association A full-color decision-support tool based on scientific evidence.

	Topical Fluoride Recommendations for High-Risk Children: Development of Decision Support Matrix Altarum Institute This matrix summarizes recommendations from an expert panel convened in 2007 to develop a decision-making tool for primarily non-oral-health-professional audiences on the use of topical fluoride in preventing and controlling dental caries in young children at high risk for dental caries.


Anticipatory Guidance Tools
	Anticipatory Guidance for Oral Health and Prevention of Dental Caries Minnesota Department of Health This section of an oral health screening online module provides an anticipatory guidance timeline.

	Anticipatory Guidance for Pregnant Women, New Mothers, or Other Caregivers; Parents of Infants; and Parents of Children (Ages 1–5); National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center These handouts from Open Wide: Oral Health Training for Health Professionals are brief and easy to read.

	The Dental Home: It's Never Too Early to Start Healthy Smiles Healthy Children, the Foundation of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry This tool addresses the concept of the dental home and how parents and oral health professionals can make a difference, and it provides recommendations for professionals and key messages to share with parents.

	Parent's Checklist for Good Dental Health Practices in Child Care National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education This checklist encourages parents to look at the oral health practices in place in their children's child care and early education settings. It is also designed for use by early childhood professionals and heath professionals who seek to improve the quality of oral health practices in child care.



Posters
Ask. Advise. Refer. Don't Share Germs (Spanish) How to Brush and Floss Infant Tooth Decay (also in Spanish) Save Face. Wear a Mouth Guard Stop Dental Disease

Public Education (order in bulk)			see also Bright Futures Toolbox Resources for Families and OHRC consumer brochures
	American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Health Care Provider Brochures American Dental Association For the Dental Patient National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research A Healthy Mouth for Your Baby (also in Spanish) Seal Out Tooth Decay (also in Spanish) NICHD Information Resource Center Milk Matters Coloring Book (also in Spanish) National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Brush Up on Healthy Teeth: Simple Steps for Kids' Smiles (also in Spanish)


Multimedia
	From Open Wide: Oral Health Training for Health Professionals: What Is Tooth Decay (requires Flash Player) National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center's YouTube Channel