The age-1 dental visit and the dental home; a model for early childhood caries prevention.

Early childhood caries (ECC) has been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be the most prevalent infectious disease in our nation's children. Despite great strides in the reduction in caries in the last few decades, preventive efforts for very young children are often not instituted early enough to be effective. The general public and many dentists feel that children don't need to see a dentist until the age of 3 years. Too often, however, maternal transmission of cariogenic bacteria has already occurred and destruction of the dental hard tissues has begun. Restorative care for young children can be difficult, expensive, and the need for it is almost entirely preventable. In an effort to identify those patients at high risk for ECC, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Academy of Pediatrics have issued policy statements regarding oral health risk assessment timing and the establishment of a "dental home" by the age of 1 year. By identifying at-risk patients and directing aggressive preventive strategies at them, we can decrease the prevalence of ECC. This article reviews the age-1 dental visit and the concept of the dental home, and provides general practitioners with a method to introduce it into their practice.