Driving Trends in Adolescent Oral Health

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Location: Gold Coast

CE: 1.0

Speaker(s)

Alec S. Eidelman, DMD, MPH

Community Dentist, Department of Oral Health
Windsor Dental, Cambridge Health Alliance

Slides

Moderator(s)

Matt Zaborowski, MPH, CPH

Preventive Health Activities Manager
American Dental Association, Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention

Disclosure(s):

Alec S. Eidelman, DMD, MPH: No financial relationships to disclose

Matt Zaborowski, MPH, CPH: No financial relationships to disclose

Attending to adolescent health includes unique challenges. This population experience dramatic changes in physical, emotional, and environmental wellbeing. Teaching, learning, and caring for adolescents’ oral health is increasingly difficult by the speed at which relevant health topics can change.

This session is aimed to provide informational updates to current adolescent oral health-related topics and discuss emerging trends on how to develop effective services and programming around meeting these oral health needs through:
(1) Counseling techniques related to the effects of environmental and individual stressors on oral health in today’s society with a focus on pandemic stress, LGBTQ+ oral health, immigrant oral health, and substance use.

(2) Educating adolescents on the risks and benefits of at-home oral health care, such as attention to tooth whitening trends, homeopathic natural care like oil pulling, and direct-to-consumer oral health products such as aligners or mouth guards.

(3) Designing sustainable school-based oral health center programming.

Learning Objectives:

Identify and explain the need for designing programs and resources specific for adolescent oral health.
Describe evidence-based practices that integrate adolescent oral health into practice, program management, allied dental health workforce educational curricula, and engage with collaborators at the local level on initiatives.
Recognize the value of an integrated school-based health center’s role in shaping how adolescents interact with their oral health.