This is a busy week for DentaQuest. On Monday through Wednesday, we have teams in California at the annual conference of the California Association of Health Plans, where participants are Charting a Path for a Healthier California.
Also
this Monday through Wednesday, our Foundation is hosting the annual gathering of grantees and partners.
They are working through strategies to achieve the ambitious goal of Oral
Health 2020: Improving oral health across the lifespan and eliminating
dental disease in children.
On
Thursday, DentaQuest teams are heading to the University of Maryland School of
Dentistry Innovations in the
Prevention and Treatment Conference where the focus is eliminating early
childhood caries (ECC), a virulent form of
cavities that impacts very young children. Rob Compton, DDS, President of the
DentaQuest Institute, is joining many other ECC experts; he will be sharing the
models of care being developed and tested by the DentaQuest Institute’s ECC
Collaborative. Additionally, the DentaQuest Foundation is a supporting sponsor
of the conference.
This
conference is important because it brings together organizations that have been
specifically focused on the challenges of arresting and reversing early
childhood caries. We are eager to hear how our colleagues are approaching this
challenge.
Early
childhood caries, an aggressive form of dental disease in infants and
pre-school children, is a significant public health problem, especially among
economically disadvantaged children.
Children
who suffer from ECC are often from low-income families. However, as modern
families are stretched in many directions, many middle class families are also
facing the challenges of this chronic disease.
The
prevalence and spread of dental caries can be prevented or slowed if the
disease is caught in the earliest stages. Unfortunately, the disease is often
not detected until it is well established. When there is no intervention, the
disease progresses until the tooth is destroyed. ECC is painful. Children have problems eating, delays
in speech, and even diminished self-esteem. If the damage is severe, the
child can lose teeth or require extensive surgery which may include root canals
and stainless steel crowns. Even after surgery, children often return within a
year (23-57 percent return within six-to-24 months) with new disease, in need
additional surgery. Surgery treats the symptoms, not the factors contributing
to the disease.
In
2008, recognizing an opportunity to tackle ECC using a disease management
approach, the DentaQuest Institute, in partnership with
Boston Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph Health Services and Hospital,
launched a pilot that has focused on educating families of at-risk children
about dental health and self-management. That work led to the ECC
Collaborative, now in Phase III, which has been engaging dentists,
pediatricians, oral surgeons, educators and community health workers in
developing and testing best practices for managing chronic caries infections in
at-risk infants and pre-school children. The Collaborative is focused on
reducing new cavitation, reducing pain, and reducing operating room utilization
in children ages 0-5.
ECC is
serious. DentaQuest is excited to be part of the extraordinary collaborative
learning opportunity hosted by the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.
This is a public health problem that will certainly benefit from innovation and
creative solutions.