Kids Oral Health Partnership

What is the Kids Oral Health Partnership?

What can the Partnership provide?

Why is the Partnership needed?

Who manages the Partnership?

Who funds the Partnership?

What is the Kids Oral Health Partnership? The Kids Oral Health Partnership is designed to give professionals who provide care to children ages 0-3 the tools become the first line of defense against oral disease through training on risk assessment, screening, guidance and referrals for parents and their young children.

Child health care providers, and other providers who see pregnant mothers and very young children, can easily learn to check the oral health status and provide guidance to prevent or treat decay.

What can the Partnership provide? The Kids Oral Health Partnership can provide help with:

• Oral Health Screening and Risk Assessment (tools and training)

• Parental  guidance on oral health care for children (training and resources)

• Referral to the dentist when needed  (local providers and specialty care)

Using Maine Smiles Matter, a curriculum developed especially for non-dental  providers, the Project can  provide training that meets your scheduling needs and in locations and time periods that work for you.

Why is the Partnership needed? Early childhood caries is a serious  bacterial infection with life long consequences, yet most of the  time children don’t get their first dental visit until they are at least 3, and often many years older. Many get no care until the disease is acute.

Many places in Maine are facing a shortage of dentists, and many dentists are not prepared to see very young children. We can help you develop relationships with a range of  local dental providers so that when a referral is necessary it will be successful.

We can provide ideas and  suggestions for structuring referral agreements and care support structures that will suit both the families and the providers.

Who manages the Partnership? Medical Care Development provides staff and management to the KOHP through a grant from the Oral Health Program, MaineCDC

Who funds the Partnership? The Kids Oral Health Partnership is a four year Targeted Oral Health Services grant from the Maternal and Child Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US DHHS.