Children’s Dental Health
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Opportunities for Action

Action to address children's dental health has been slowly but steadily increasing in recent years. More can be done. All segments of the community can contribute to improving children's oral health by working together to advance several key strategies.

These strategies will be most effective with strong, consistent, inclusive, and adequately funded community efforts. In order to monitor effectiveness and ensure that services are addressing local needs, it also may be useful to conduct more regular assessments of oral health trends.

• Promote and practice prevention
• Increase the number of dental providers for low-income children
• Improve services for kids with disabilities and other special needs
• Offer services in underserved parts of the counties
• Ensure that parents can make and keep appointments