Incremental Dental Care and Comprehensive Dental Care

Parts of School Dental Health in Public Health Dentistry

1. INCREMENTAL & COMPREHENSIVE DENTAL CARE

2. INCREMENTAL DENTAL CARE (in the U.S) Treatment programs - by taking up the youngest available group in the first year and carrying it forward in subsequent years as far as funds permit, adding a new class of children each year - until an entire child population is being served to as high as the available resources and funds permit.

3. The statistics of dental need : > 80 % of dental decay - found in 25 % of population. These children are from lower - income households , ethnic minorities and many times have special needs. > 5 % of 5-9 year olds have at least one cavity or filling. By age 17 - the percentage increased to 78 %.

4. 25% children - not seen a dentist before entering KG. >50 % of parents report unmet dental needs of their children . Unfortunately the children who most need dental care are not receiving it . This raised the concept of dental public health.

5. Its a rational approach on annual basis to the dental problems and a plan for life long dental care. It aims at prevention and maintenance as the programme starts at an early age. It provides a complete oral examination during early childhood.

6. DENTAL CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES Many issues has proven that delivery of dental care in the US is ineffective in providing care to all segments of the population. The search for effective strategies to deal with prevention and treatment of oral disease hence focuses on children as a natural target population. Treatment is not the answer to solving children's oral health problems; rather primary prevention is the key. This gave raise to the concept of Incremental Dental Care

7. DEFINITION Periodic care so spaced that increments of dental diseases are treated at the earliest time consisting of proper diagnosis and operating efficiency, in such a way that there is no accumulation of dental needs beyond minimum. { In 1907, George Cunningham in England proposed a method of delivering priority dental care to a group of children, known as incremental care}

8. Advantages 1. Ideal pattern of care. 2. Initial cost is less. 3. Man hour for initial care is less. 4. Lesions of caries are treated well before there is a chance for pulp involvement. 5. Periodontal disease is intercepted at/near the beginning. 6. Topical and other measures can be maintained on a regular basis. 7. Bills for dental service are equalized and regularly spaced. 8. Child develops the habit of visiting the dentist periodically

9. Limitation: Financing (lack of funding) along with dental manpower limitations, the programme usually terminates about the fourth grade (age 10) and is almost never carried through the high school period.

10. Disadvantages: Time consuming Attention to deciduous teeth – some might ignore. Psychology and changing patterns of modern family Increasing likelihood of interruption in children's dental health programmes. Inertia toward the seeking of private dental care

11. COMPREHENSIVE DENTAL CARE Comprehensive dental care - is the meeting of accumulated dental needs at the time a population group is taken into the program (initial care) and the detection and correction of new increments of dental disease on a semiannual or other periodic basis ( maintenance care). Preventive measures - are a part of comprehensive dental care.

12. Its a coordinated approach, by a dentist , to the restoration or maintenance of the oral health and function of the patient, utilizing the full range of clinically proven dental care procedures, which includes examination and diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic services.

13. Services are provided not only to eliminate pain and infection but also to Restore teeth to functional form, Replace missing teeth, Provide maintenance care for the control of early lesions of dental disease Provide preventive measures and education Dental care from WOMB to TOMB, this is comprehensive dental care in the true sense

14. In summary!!! If one accepts the fact that routine appropriate care over a lifetime will decrease the cost of restorative care and perhaps subsequent endodontic and prosthodontic care, one might logically accept the importance of providing dental health from school onwards.!!