Hello, I’m Dr. Arthur Nowak, Professor Emeritus in Pediatric Dentistry and Pediatrics at the Colleges of Dentistry and Medicine, University of Iowa. I’m delighted to introduce you to A Health Professional’s Guide to Pediatric Oral Health Management, a series of seven online modules designed to help health professionals such as obstetricians/gynecologists, pediatricians, family practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse midwifes, and nutritionists enhance the oral health of the infants and young children they see in their practices.

In my work as a pediatric dentist over the past 40 years, I’ve discovered that there’s a great deal that health professionals can do to keep infants’ and children’s teeth and mouths healthy, which will improve their overall health. With this goal in mind, I wrote a document called Oral Management of Pediatric Patients for Non-Oral Health Professionals: A Study Guide, which the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago have adapted to create these modules. In the modules, you’ll find information about oral conditions and abnormalities, performing an oral screening and risk assessment, providing parents with anticipatory guidance, establishing a dental home, and much more.

I’m excited about the useful information included in these modules, and I’m confident that they will help you improve the oral health status of infants and young children.