Rafif Tayara
Dr. Michael’s Children Dental Center Dubai, UAE
Title: Challenges in pediatric oral healthcare: An update
Biography
Biography: Rafif Tayara
Abstract
Introduction: Come look with me at the different facades of the most common chronic childhood disease existing today: Early Childhood caries. The conundrum of balancing the essential and basic ethical oral health needs of an individual with his aesthetic and social wants has not been able to be resolved in the profession of Pediatric Dental Medicine. This has led to a great disparity in access to oral health services even in the richest most developed countries. Universal affordable access to quality essential dental care remains elusive in all these countries who have otherwise achieved this standard in all other areas of healthcare. This problem is far more accentuated when we look at pediatric oral health care. Pediatric dental treatment under general anesthesia due to advanced tooth decay, a completely preventable disease, is now the leading cause of ambulatory surgery in United States and United Kingdom! With the explosive growth of the middle class worldwide and especially in the GCC countries, their associated greater access to highly processed sugars, lack of availability of preventive oral health services and the lack of knowledge of healthcare professionals about oral healthcare in children, the dental profession will be faced with a challenge far greater than anything it has ever faced before. And this will be far more pronounced in the pediatric population.
Aim: We aim to raise awareness among healthcare professionals about early childhood caries as a global healthcare issue and bridging the existing gap about pediatric dentistry as a global healthcare issue.
Method: Evidence-based data will show the lack of sufficient knowledge among medical professionals about oral health and childhood caries.
Result: Early Childhood caries not detected by many pediatricians and lack of proper patients’ guidance on oral health prevention methods.
Conclusion: There’s a big gap to fill in terms of raising oral health awareness among family doctors and pediatricians in regards to early childhood caries, its detection, prevention methods, impact on children and treatment.