Learn the “Nuts and Bolts of Office-Based Oral Health Promotion and Fluoride Varnish” from Melinda Clark, MD, and Rocio Quiñonez, DMD.
Caries affect 50% of 5- to 9-year-olds and 78% of 17-year-olds, yet 25% of poor children don’t see a dentist by age 5. You are in an excellent position to provide “timely preventive oral health interventions” in your office, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends that “primary care clinicians apply fluoride varnish to the primary teeth of all infants and children starting at the age of primary tooth eruption,” and fluoride varnish was added to the Bright Futures Periodicity Schedule in 2015.
At the American Academy of Pediatrics’ annual meeting in Chicago, Dr. Clark and Dr. Quiñonez will address the importance of dealing with early childhood caries (ECC), defined as one or more decayed, missing from dental caries, or filled tooth surfaces in any primary tooth in a preschool-age child between birth and younger than 6 years of age. ECC can result in missed school, inappropriate use of over-the-counter pain medication, disturbed sleep, eating dysfunction, infection, and even death.
Dr. Melinda Clark
Dr. Clark is an associate professor of pediatrics at Albany (N.Y.) Medical College, and Dr. Quiñonez is an associate professor of pediatric dentistry and pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Clark and Dr. Quiñonez will be presenting Sunday, Sept. 17, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Monday, Sept. 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. You don’t want to miss it!