Teeth: Small but Mighty and Mighty Important. A Comprehensive Review of Children’s Dental Health for Primary Care Clinicians

Abstract

Healthy teeth allow us to eat and stay well-nourished. Although primary care clinicians receive limited training about teeth, given the common nature of dental problems, it is important that they understand and recognize normal and abnormal dental conditions and can implement primary and secondary prevention of dental conditions in their practice. PubMed has been used to search the scientific literature for evidence on the following topics: normal dental development, dental abnormalities, malocclusion, teething, dental caries and related epidemiology and prevention, fluoride, dental injury and its management and prevention; and identification, prevention and treatment of gingivitis and periodontal disease. Literature review relied on randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and Cochrane reviews when relevant and available. Other sources of evidence included cohort and case-control studies. Consensus statements and expert opinion were used when there was a paucity of high-quality research studies. The literature has been synthesized on these topics to make them relevant to pediatric primary care clinicians, and as available, the strength of evidence has been characterized when making clinical recommendations.