Dental caries was a significant health issue for these children under 3 years of age, and factors other than bottle feeding may play an important role in its etiology. Prevention of dental caries in children under age three will depend on a better understanding of the etiology as well as improved access to care.

No abstract

Dental caries was a significant health issue for these children under 3 years of age, and factors other than bottle feeding may play an important role in its etiology. Prevention of dental caries in children under age three will depend on a better understanding of the etiology as well as improved access to care.

The American Board of Dental Public Health (ABDPH) currently recognizes 10 core competencies, which identify the skills, knowledge and understanding expected of all dental public health specialists. The last update to the competencies was 1998. The American Board of Dental Public Health, along with the American Association of Public Health Dentistry and its many partners, initiated a process to revise the competencies. This report presents the process and the new competencies for the dental public health specialist of the 21 st century. Each of the developed competencies is supported by a "statement of intent". These competencies take effect immediately. The new competencies will be used in testing candidates for specialty status beginning with the 2018 ABDPH examination.

This study was undertaken to compare oral health status of independent community-dwelling elders with those using long-term-care services. Clinical examinations and self-reported sociodemographic data were collected for 2927 older adults living independently, using home-care services, or living in nursing facilities. Mean age of dentate participants (n = 2021) was 72.2 years (range, 50-103 years); mean number of teeth, 18.16; mean DFS, 28.86; and mean RCI, 15.23. In multivariate analyses, receiving home-care services or living in a nursing facility was significantly predictive of poorer oral health status with respect to both coronal and root caries. This was also true for ethnic groups other than non-Hispanic-white. We concluded that, in a large, multi-ethnic sample, direct comparisons highlight significant unmet treatment need among users of long-term-care services, compared with independent older adults living in the same communities.