After dental school, pediatric dentists must undergo two or three additional years of intensive training in pediatric dentistry. Basic Life Support and Pediatric Advance Life Support training, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic behavior management of pediatric dental patients, comprehensive dental restorative care for pediatric patients, management of oral injuries, diagnosis and treatment of periodontal disease in children, management of disease of the dental pulp tissue, management of the oral health of patients with special health care needs, and diagnosis and treatment of abnormalities in the developing dentition. In the United States, approximately 20 percent of the children have 80 percent of the dental caries. Children from families with limited financial resources are burdened with a disproportionate share of the caries disease. Many communities have elected to provide preventive oral health programs for infants who are at risk for developing dental caries.
Early childhood caries is the term now used to describe baby bottle tooth decay and nursing caries.
Since early childhood caries is a multifactorial disease, community preventive oral health programs must address factors such as the feeding practices which promote caries, and infant oral hygiene practices. An ideal community preventive oral health program would be similar to one recently published by Cunha et al in the April issue of the Journal of Dentistry for Children . To maximize the benefits of oral health maintenance, restrict participation in the program to infants between the ages of 1 to 12 months. Reinforce the concepts of shared responsibility for oral health by making parents active participants in the oral health of their infants. The lecture discusses the principles of oral and dental health for infants, eating and feeding habits, the importance of primary teeth, oral hygiene instruction, fluoride and fluoride supplementation, and the development of dental caries.