( A new screening system combining digita...)New Screening System For Early Detection Of Dental Caries in Toddlers,Health

A new screening system combining digital photography with Internet has proved to be a simple, cost-effective method to screen for a common childhood oral disease// that predominantly plagues America's inner city toddlers.

Early childhood dental caries (ECC), more commonly called as baby bottle tooth decay, results from prolonged exposure to sweetened juices, as seen in toddlers sleeping with a bottle, that results in extensive tooth decay. The condition is often overlooked by parents until the child complains of severe pain, and by the time interventions are sought, the condition would have progressed to the extent that the only option left would be extraction of the decayed tooth under sedation. The new screening system has been developed to aid in early intervention before the problems become severe.

A specially outfitted digital camera is used to take photos of children's teeth by a Child Care Center health assistant. The photos are then sent electronically across town to pediatric dentists, who review the files in batches, identifying those toddlers with ECC. Dentists believe that this new screening system is the first of its kind, and will pave the way for earlier identification of the cavities before they become a painful problem for young toddlers – and a costly one for states across the country footing the bill for Medicaid. Estimates in the community of Rochester alone put treatment of ECC at $1 million annually, a tab picked up almost exclusively by Medicaid.

In a recent study published in the June issue of the Journal of Telemedicine & Telecare, University of Rochester Medical Center dentists documented how the new system showed that nearly 40 percent of 162 toddlers were suffering from baby bottle tooth decay. Most averaged about two cavities, but one child had as many as 20 decayed teeth.

"We have identified a very simple, cost-effective method to screen for this common childhood disease before it bec
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