Whether it is an infant battling transmission of Streptococcus mutans from the mother, a stressed college student making poor dietary choices or a senior citizen with exposed roots, each stage of life has its’ own set of threats to oral health. This course will examine those risks and behaviors as they relate to your patient groups by age. You will use evidence-based risk factors to determine who will benefit from what level of intervention and learn to construct patient-centered strategies to affect change.

The intervention strategies discussed will include measures to take at all life stages: during pregnancy, after birth, for toddlers, children, teens, college students, adults and senior citizens. You will learn a quick and easy method for uncovering the most common evidence-based risk factors that affect your patients. You will discover that a majority of your patients are likely to benefit from a risk reduction strategy including preventive fluoride treatment. Participants will learn about proven practice-based treatments such as fluoride varnish and home fluoride products

that the patient/parent can include in their oral health routine. Getting your patients through life caries-free is attainable; it just takes deliberate intervention at every stage of life.

Learning Objectives:
• Quickly assess the patients’ risk level using an evidence-based protocol for known risk factors
• Effectively communicate the long-term benefits of fluoride varnish as a risk reduction tool
• Provide assessment and treatment with minimal change to your current hygiene appointment
• Establish an office protocol promoting risk assessment as an important part of patient and practice health   ( disclaimer, bio and commercial disclosure )