FAQs

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, fluoride varnish application, 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)
  • Fluoride Varnish Application (training and resources)
  • 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 Supports the Partnership?

The importance of early intervention in preventing oral disease is recognized by all of Maine’s major medical and dental professional associations. In August of 2008, the Maine Dental Association, The Maine Medical Association, the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Maine Osteopathic Association and the Maine Academy of Family Physicians signed a joint letter urging their members to join efforts on behalf young children’s oral health and participate in initiatives underway in Maine- The Kids Oral Health Partnership, From the First Tooth, and the Maine Chapter of the AAP Pediatric Oral Risk Assessment Project. The letter can be viewed here.

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 to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Medical Care Development provides staff and management to the KOHP through a grant from the Oral Health Program, Maine CDC.