Science and SurveillanceUpdate on Early Childhood Caries Since the Surgeon General's Report
Section snippets
Epidemiology
Although ECC was known to be a significant problem in preschool populations at the time of the Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health (SGROH) in 2000, comprehensive understanding of its epidemiology has been limited as a result of lack of a case definition, complexity in accessing this age group for data collection, and difficulty in examining these young children. The first reports of caries prevalence in preschool populations in the United States were derived from convenience samples of Head
Previous Caries Experience
One of the best predictors of future caries is previous caries experience.24, 25 Children under the age of 5 with a history of dental caries should automatically be classified as being at high risk for future decay. However, the absence of caries is not a useful caries risk predictor for infants and toddlers because even if these children are at high risk, there may not have been enough time for carious lesion development. Because white spot lesions are precursors to cavitated lesions, they
Interventions to Reduce ECC
As we have seen, there has been an increase in our knowledge regarding the risk factors for ECC, but interventions to reduce the disease have been less successful. Clinical trials on infants and toddlers are challenging and difficult to accomplish for several reasons. Populations of young children at risk for dental caries are difficult to recruit because they are not enrolled in large numbers in institutional settings. Parents of young children, especially those in low socioeconomic settings,
Acknowledgments
Supported in part by NIH/NIDCR 1U54DE019275. Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities. We acknowledge the assistance of Drs William Maas, Alan Douglass, and Joanna Douglass for suggestions and review.
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