Editor’s note
Dr. Wagner recommends that the ADA, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) work together to promote dental health. The three organizations have collaborated in various ways over the years to boost awareness of oral health as a vital component of general health for children.
Some examples:
- – Starting in 2003 and continuing each year thereafter, the ADA has partnered with the AAP on a "Back-to-School" promotion targeted to parents. In the first year, the campaign focused on the message that dental examinations are as important as medical examinations and immunizations. In subsequent years, the campaign has centered on healthy eating to help prevent dental caries (2004) and on the use of mouth-guards to reduce sports injuries (2005).
- – All three organizations—the ADA, the AAPD and the AAP—worked together to review and revise the dietary fluoride supplement schedule aimed at children living in communities that are not fluoridated.
- – The ADA, the AAP and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists worked together on a proposal to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to explore the relationship between maternal oral infections and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The AAPD and the American Academy of Periodontology also supported this submission.
- – The AAPD Foundation has partnered with the AAP on the medical group’s Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) program to bring pediatric dental professors to teach for several days in a pediatrics residency program.
- – The AAPD also has provided pediatric dental expertise for the AAP’s "Bright Futures" project, which focuses on "prevention and health promotion for infants, children, adolescents and their families."
- – Within the AAP, there is a Section on Pediatric Dentistry to explore and develop oral health policy as it relates to pediatricians.
These are just a few of many examples where dentistry and pediatrics are working together to improve the oral health of the nation’s children. For more information, visit each organization’s Web site.
