227866 Cavity Free at Three: A cross-discipline program aimed at preventing oral disease young children

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

Karen Savoie, RDH, BS , Colorado Area Health Education Center System, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, CO
     
Background: Dental caries in the most common chronic disease of childhood, yet it is preventable. Public health efforts to reduce the caries burden among young children have proven largely inadequate. New approaches are needed. Cavity Free at Three is an innovative program aimed at preventing oral disease in young children. Developed by leading Colorado dentists, physicians and dental hygienists, Cavity Free at Three is working to prevent early childhood caries by joining forces across healthcare disciplines to share the responsibility of prevention.

Methods: An overview of the Cavity Free at Three program will be provided. Key elements for the successful implementation of this program will be described.

Results: Hundreds of health professionals and health professional students have been training in the Cavity Free at Three model in Colorado. This program is changing the standard of oral health care for children less than three years of age in Colorado.

Conclusions: Dental caries are a common, chronic and serious disease in America's children. Prevention efforts must be enhanced and emphasized, across health care disciplines, if we hope to improve oral health outcomes for American children. Cavity Free at Three offers one approach toward solving this major health issue.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Basic medical science applied in public health
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
1) Describe Cavity Free at Three, an infant and toddler oral disease prevention program that can be incorporated into public health programs, well child care, early childhood setting and dental care. 2) Explain the essential elements for developing a similar state or community program including: funding mechanisms, policy changes that are needed to promote the Cavity Free at Three model, strategies for bringing medicine and dentistry together to address early childhood caries, and the role of health professional education in promoting and diffusing this model into the field.

Keywords: Oral Health, Children's Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Education Director of Cavity Free at Three. I conduct all training for this program.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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