LUCY SCHULTZE

Neva Eklund, DMD, oversees a patient’s check-up at University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Batson Children’s Hospital

Most dentists have said three years old is the right time for children to climb into their exam chairs for the first time.

But when it comes to saving kids’ teeth from bad habits, like candy chewing and soda sipping, age three is often already too late.

Pediatric dentists are among those now pushing for an earlier first date with the dentist — as early as a child’s first birthday. That’s the recommendation now endorsed by the American Dental Association, American Academy of Pediatric Dentists and American Academy of Pediatricians.

As it turns out, the age three marker has had more to do with children beginning to cooperate in the chair than when dental care was needed, said Neva Eklund, DMD, chair of Pediatric and Public Health Dentistry at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s School of Dentistry.

“We found that zero- to three-year-olds were beginning to be ignored — to the point where they might have a whole mouthful of rotten teeth,” she said.

The purpose in even healthy children having a dental home so young is primarily one of establishing good habits among both kids and parents, Eklund said.
Even given that reality, though, the thought of welcoming one-year-old patients isn’t easy to swallow for most general dentists.

The recommendation has been in place for a few years, but it will take time before enough dentists get comfortable with the idea. It also requires a separate set of skills, either through new dentists’ training or practicing dentists’ continuing education.

Meanwhile, pediatricians are now being asked to employ their better-honed ability in working with infants and young children by adding a basic dental screening to well-baby visits, Eklund said.

“We’re asking family-medicine physicians and pediatricians during those visits not to just skip the teeth and look at the throat,” she said.

It only takes a few seconds, she said, to lift a child’s lip and see whether plaque or decay have already set in. If so, the child should be referred to a pediatric dentist, Eklund said.

“Overall, dental health among children is good,” she said. “But there’s a huge, vulnerable population that needs specialized care.”



June 2008