Press Releases

Evidence-based, Preventive Community-based, and Programmatic Approaches to Combatting Early Childhood Caries

Published on: June 21, 2023

Alexandria, VA – A symposium exploring oral health disparities and early childhood caries (ECC) in the United States will be presented at the 101st General Session of the IADR, which will be held in conjunction with the 9th Meeting of the Latin American Region and the 12th World Congress on Preventive Dentistry on June 21-24, 2023, in Bogotá, Colombia.

Like most countries, oral health disparities persist in the United States, and ECC remains the most common chronic disease among children under the age of five. The largest disparities in access to dental care relate to income and race/ethnicity, and ECC prevalence among children ages two to five is highest among the poor (<100% Federal Poverty Level). Additionally, ECC is highest among American Indian/Alaska Natives (71.3%) followed by Mexican-Americans (41.5%), non-Hispanic Blacks (30.3%), and non-Hispanic Whites (24.9%).

This symposium will describe evidence-based, preventive community-based and programmatic approaches to combatting ECC. It will include the following presentations: 

  • “BEhavioral EConomics for Oral Health INnovation (BEECON)” by Francisco Ramos-Gomez of the University of California, Los Angeles, USA
  • “COordinated Oral health Promotion (CO-OP) Chicago” by Molly Martin of the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
  • “Value-Based Care Pilot” by Oscar Arevalo of Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Miami, FL, USA 
  • “Sugared Fruit Drink Trial” by Donald Chi of the University of Washington, Seattle, USA

The symposium, “Children’s Oral Health Disparities: Community-Based and Programmatic Prevention,” will take place on Wednesday, June 21 at 1:15 p.m. COT (UTC-05:00).

About IADR
The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit and private-sector institutions who share our mission. Learn more at www.iadr.org.