title: Improving children's oral health: an interdisciplinary research framework.
abstract: Despite the concerted efforts of research and professional and advocacy stakeholders, recent evidence suggests that improvements in the oral health of young children in the United States has not followed the prevailing trend of oral health improvement in other age groups. In fact, oral health disparities in the youngest children may be widening, yet efforts to translate advances in science and technology into meaningful improvements in populations' health have had limited success. Nevertheless, the great strides in genomics, biological, behavioral, social, and health services research in the past decade have strengthened the evidence base available to support initiatives and translational efforts. Concerted actions to accelerate this translation and implementation process are warranted; at the same time, policies that can help tackle the upstream determinants of oral health disparities are imperative. This article summarizes the proceedings from the symposium on the interdisciplinary continuum of pediatric oral health that was held during the 43rd annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. This report showcases the latest contributions across the interdisciplinary continuum of pediatric oral health research and provides insights into future research priorities and necessary intersectoral synergies. Issues are discussed as related to the overwhelming dominance of social determinants on oral disease and the difficulty of translating science into action.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health, The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, Columbus, OH, USA Department of Dentistry, Columbus Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Casamassimo
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Center for Craniofacial and Dental Genetics, Department of Oral Biology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Marazita
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Milgrom
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Kimon_Divaris@unc.edu.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Divaris
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000639:trends*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control; D018865:Dental Research / Q000639:trends*; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D015438:Health Behavior; D057220:Health Literacy; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006291:Health Policy; D006292:Health Priorities; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D009909:Oral Health / Q000639:trends*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D014481:United States
keywords: dental research; health disparities; health policy; pediatric dentistry; research agenda; translational research