Chronic Disease Management of Early Childhood Dental Caries: Practices of US Pediatric Dentists.

Introduction: Early childhood caries (ECC), dental cavities in children younger than 6 years, is common, consequential, and inequitably concentrated among socially disadvantaged children. The World Health Organization and authoritative clinical and public health agencies promote 4 chronic disease management (CDM) approaches that are low-cost and can be delivered in home and community sites: pharmacologic, behavioral, monitoring, and minimally invasive dentistry (MID). The extent of adoption of these approaches among US pediatric dentists is unknown.

Long term care-acute system integration and transformation: Innovations in models of care.

The article discusses innovations in integrating Long-Term Care (LTC) and acute systems, focusing on Humber River Health's (HRH) model. Older adults in LTC homes are vulnerable to avoidable Emergency Department (ED) visits due to frailty and medical complexity. HRH developed an integrated care model centred on LTC Remote Monitoring (RM) with LTC partners, leveraging nurse-led care models, digital tools, and virtual care hub to reduce avoidable ED transfers.

Innovative state oral health initiatives: A qualitative analysis of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services demonstrations.

Background: US health care delivery and financing arrangements are changing rapidly as payers and providers seek greater efficiency, effectiveness, and safety. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services uses grants and technical assistance to drive such development through innovative demonstration programs, including for oral health care. The authors reviewed these dental demonstrations to identify common themes and identify barriers to and facilitators of implementation.

Change in parental knowledge and beliefs about early childhood dental caries following a pragmatic community-based trial.

Objectives: To evaluate parent knowledge and belief changes following the MySmileBuddy (MSB) early childhood caries (ECC) intervention.

Methods: Pre- and post-intervention surveys were completed by 669 parents of children with visually-evident ECC from among 977 participants in a 6-12-month pragmatic community-based caries management trial administered by community health workers (CHWs). Six domains of knowledge about caries and motivating and facilitating determinants were assessed via 26 survey items.