Early Childhood Caries Prevention Project : A Training for Primary Care Providers

Lois A. Wessel, CFNP and Kathie M. Westpheling, MPH. Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, 7005 Westmoreland Ave., Takmoa Park, MD 20912, 301-213-6733, lwessel@igc.org

Prevention of Early Childhood Caries: A training module for Primary Care Providers

The Association of Clinicians for the Underserved is a professional organization for healthcare providers who work with uninsured and underinsured individuals. Among other things, the ACU offers trainings to health care providers on pertinent health issues. For the last year, the ACU has been training doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners, and health educators to assess for and prevent early childhood caries (ECC) in the 0-3 age group. The training consists of presentations on the scope of the problem, the etiology of ECC, how to assess for ECC, and how to prevent ECC by teaching clinicians how to provide anticipatory guidance to patients. Participants receive provider packets with materials to share with colleagues, as well as patient education packets with brochures, a refrigerator magnet and teeth cleaning supplies. Technical assistance is available for participants via a list serve and phone. In addition, the ACU maintains a web site with information related to oral health (www.clinicians.org).

This APHA session will describe the contents of the training program, the integration of knowledge into the practice of participants, and measurement tools to assess integration of oral health screening and prevention into the practice of primary care providers. It will describe the ACU’s transdisciplinary approach to provider education as a model for primary care across disciplines.

Learning Objectives: Goals The goals of this APHA session are to

Describe the primary care provider’s training and knowledge base in prevention of early childhood caries

Identify how primary care providers can incorporate an oral exam and anticipatory guidance on oral health into their well child exams

Analyze the ability of primary care providers to incorporate oral health into their practice 4. Describe a training approach, utilizing a transdisciplinary team, to train primary care providers on prevention of Early Childhood Caries

Discuss outcomes of the training sessiosn. Objectives After completing the class, participants will be able to

Identify the role of primary care providers in oral health screening and early childhood caries prevention
Describe a transdiciplinary model of provider education.
List resources available to train primary care providers in prevention of early childhood caries

Keywords: Oral Health Needs, Primary Care

Related Web page: www.clinicians.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, a non-profit member organization, designed this training program
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation

Integration of Oral Health and General Health

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA