Forward

Oral health has become highly visible with the advent of the first ever Surgeon General’s report on Oral Health. It has been an all but neglected area in health care programs, despite ample evidence that dental care ranks high in priority among the health care needs of underserved populations. Given the now well established oral health/general health connection, integration of oral health messages with general health messages for expectant and new mothers takes on increased importance.

Among the most common health problems in the United States, dental caries and gingivitis are essentially preventable. A few simple, practical, inexpensive steps need to begin from infancy and be practiced regularly. Many parents are not aware that their baby’s primary teeth are developing even before birth and that teeth can begin to demineralize soon after they erupt. Early childhood caries (ECC), previously referred to as Baby Bottle Tooth Decay (BBTD), is an infectious disease. It is as preventable as measles, mumps or chicken pox. In a sense, infant oral health care is comparable to immunization.

Regular visits to the obstetrician before the baby is born offer an opportunity to alert expectant mothers to the importance of oral health. Routine visits of a mother with her newborn to the pediatrician provide the earliest occasion for identification of any oral manifestation of nutritional deficiency or developmental defect and allow for appropriate timely intervention. Dentists rarely see the focus population early enough to effect primary prevention. Partnerships with other professionals who interact with children on a daily basis will promote far wider dissemination of these oral health messages than can the dental community alone.

Caretakers of infants and young children must know and understand more about the prevention of childhood dental disease. Oral health promotion and disease prevention can be taught to parents by knowledgeable professionals while providing them with general health education and parenting skills. Oral hygiene should be added to their list of parenting skills.

Motivation may be enhanced by stimulating curiosity as well as by challenging parents to think of oral health as an essential component of their child’s overall health. In your roles as teachers and caretakers of young children, you can help in the prevention of oral disease and promotion of a child’s well being.

Head Start’s positive track record demonstrates that young children involved in quality early childhood programs are substantially more successful in both school and life environments. This comprehensive approach, which includes early education of both parent and child and preventive health services, allows for early identification of health-related needs which ensures that each child receives the appropriate care.

This course is designed to provide information which will give Head Start staff who interact with parents and children the tools to educate themselves about the risk factors of oral disease, signs and symptoms of disease and simple preventive techniques to maintain oral health.