National Maternal and Child
Oral Health Resource
Center
This and past issues of the Oral Health Alert: Focus on Head Start are available at http://www.mchoralhealth.org/alert/archives.html.
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1. Ages and Stages
This DVD for families includes four 15-minute video segments about oral
health behaviors, practices at home, and the importance of oral health
in children. The video segments are titled Cavity Free Families (for
expecting families or families with infants from birth to age 1), Look
at My Teeth (for families with children ages 1-2), and Fluoride Use
Guidelines and My Trip to the Dentist (for families with children ages
2-5). The DVD may be set on single-play mode for use in the home,
classrooms, one-on-one interventions, and group outreach sessions or on
endless-loop mode for use at community health fairs and in waiting
rooms. Clips from the video segments may be previewed on the Easy Steps
to Oral Health Web site. The DVD was field tested in several California
communities and is available in English and Spanish.
Contact: Tom Evans. Health Starts Here -- Easy Steps to Oral Health
(ESOH), 2300 Allesandro Drive, Suite 100, Ventura, CA 90280. Telephone:
(805) 653-6000; fax: (805) 653-6077; Web site: http://www.easystepstooralhealth.com.
$17.67. Clips from video segments may be viewed at no charge from the
Web site at https://www.easystepstooralhealth.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=27.
The DVD may also be ordered from the Web site at https://www.easystepstooralhealth.com/index.php?option=com_phpshop&page=shop.browse&category_id=c2f4461f3798f3de0ef6f800c0927238.
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2. Infant Oral Health Evaluation Caries Risk Management
This DVD, designed for use by health professionals, presents examples
of how to assess a child for caries risk during a routine well child
visit. A video segment on fluoride use and guidelines, printable
consumer information, and articles and data on Xylitol and its use with
families are also provided.
Contact: Tom Evans. Health Starts Here -- Easy Steps to Oral Health
(ESOH), 2300 Allesandro Drive, Suite 100, Ventura, CA 90280. Telephone:
(805) 653-6000; fax: (805) 653-6077; Web site: http://www.easystepstooralhealth.com.
$17.67. The DVD may also be ordered from the Web site at https://www.easystepstooralhealth.com/index.php?option=com_phpshop&page=shop.browse&category_id=c2f4461f3798f3de0ef6f800c0927238.
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3. Caries Risk-Based Fluoride Supplementation for Children
This study investigated family physicians' and pediatricians'
recommendation for supplemental fluoride use based on the dental caries
risk of young children. The results indicate that most physicians (1)
prescribe fluoride supplements to young children and (2) follow
fluoride supplementation guidelines, but without considering the
child's caries risk status. The authors conclude that developing a
fluoride supplementation guideline that more effectively considers a
child's caries risk is necessary, and that if caries risk status is to
be used to tailor preventive regimens, physicians need to be educated
on how to identify children most in need of such regimens.
Sohn W, Ismail AI, Taichman S. 2007. Pediatric Dentistry
29(1):23-31. Abstract available at http://www.aapd.org/searcharticles/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=2141.
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4. Dental Insurance and Its Impact on Preventive Dental
Care Visits for U.S. Children
This article compares children and adolescents (from birth through age
17) with dental insurance to those with medical insurance (but no
dental insurance) to assess the association between dental insurance
coverage and having had a preventive dental visit in the previous year,
with particular emphasis on the effects of age, race, and ethnicity.
Dental insurance, whether public or private, is associated with a
higher likelihood of receiving a preventive dental visit for U.S.
children and adolescents. Despite recent increases in the number of
children and adolescents with dental insurance, children and
adolescents are 2.6 times as likely to lack dental insurance, compared
with medical insurance. Although African-American and multiracial
children and very young children (ages 3 and younger) have relatively
high rates of dental insurance coverage, their receipt of preventive
dental visits is disproportionately low.
Lewis C, Mouradian W, Slayton R, Williams A. 2007. Journal of the
American Dental Association 138(3):369-380. Abstract available at http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/abstract/138/3/369.
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5. Determinants of Dental Care Visits Among Low-Income
African-American Children
This study investigated determinants of dental visits among low-income
African-American children ages 3-5 and the association between the
children's and their parents' or caregivers' dental visit behaviors.
Children's dental insurance status was a significant determinant of
their having visited a dentist. However, even after accounting for
dental insurance status and other risk indicators, children of parents
or caregivers who reported visiting a dentist for preventive care were
about five times more likely to have visited a dentist than were
children of parents or caregivers who sought care only for treatment or
did not seek care at all.
Sohn W, Ismail A, Amaya A, Lepkowski J. 2007. Journal of the American
Dental Association 138(3):309-318. Abstract available at http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/abstract/138/3/309.
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6. Texas Dentists’ Attitudes Toward the Dental Medicaid
Program
This study (1) determined the level of participation of general and
pediatric dentists in the Texas Medicaid program, (2) documented the
amount of time dentists spent treating qualified Medicaid recipients,
(3) evaluated dentists' attitudes toward the program and their
perceptions of it, and (4) identified sources of dentists'
dissatisfaction with the program. Dentists' attitudes toward and
sources of dissatisfaction with the Texas dental Medicaid program were
similar to those of dentists in other states. Sources of
dissatisfaction included both programmatic and client-related factors.
The top three sources were broken appointments, lower reimbursement
levels, and client noncompliance. Pediatric dentists spent more time
treating Medicaid recipients than did general dentists.
Blackwelder A, Shulman JD. 2007. Pediatric Dentistry 29(1):40-46.
Abstract available at http://www.aapd.org/searcharticles/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=2143.
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