Abstract

  Infant oral health care is the foundation on which a life time of preventive education and dental care can be built in order to help acquire optimal oral health in a child. The purpose of an infant oral health program is to improve access to oral health care and to provide counseling and anticipatory guidance in oral hygiene for children aged 6 months to 5 years. The first step of infant oral health care is the preventive oral health behavior of parents since they would influence their children’s behavior in adapting to the preventive oral health practices as they grow along. Early dental interventions present an opportunity to educate parents about the medical, dental and cost benefits of preventive care which is effective in reducing early childhood caries. A comprehensive infant oral care program includes risk assessments at regularly scheduled dental visits, preventive treatments such as fluoride varnishes or sealants, parental education on the correct methods to clean the baby's mouth and establishment of dental home and use of anticipatory guidance. The present article highlights the important guidelines of infant oral health care.

Keywords: Infant Oral Health Care; Dental Home; Anticipatory Guideline; Early Childhood Caries; Prenatal Counseling

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Citation

Citation: Subhathira Rajasekaran., et al. “Promotion of Oral Health Care in Infants - A Preventive Strategy to Reduce the Burden of Early Childhood Caries”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 4.5 (2020): 18-22.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Subhathira Rajasekaran., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.