Background: Dental caries, or early childhood caries (ECC), is the most common chronic illness in children in the United States. While ECC affects children of all ages and across all sectors, it disproportionately afflicts those from low-income households, children who are uninsured, children who are geographically isolated, those from minority groups, children from families that have immigrated to this country, and/or children on Medicaidor SCHIP insurances. Each of these factors independently creates risk. Multuple factors compound to create high risk for ECC development. Children impacted by advanced ECC frequently miss school, struggle with academic performance, have impaired speech and language development, and/or may experience negatively affected self-esteem. To reduce this childhood chronic health disparity, and evidence-based practice change to provide oral health screening and fluoride varnish (FV) for children between 0-36 months was implemented in a federally-qualified, community health center (CHC).
