Early childhood caries epidemiology, aetiology, risk assessment, societal burden, management, education, and policy: Global perspective

This paper is a summary of the proceedings of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry Bangkok Conference on early childhood caries (ECC) held in 3-4 November 2018.Early childhood caries remains a highly prevalent worldwide disease that has high costs to society and has a major impact of parents’ and children's quality of life.

Approaches to reduce its prevalence include:

• Management of the disease process that start in the first year of a child's life, and depending on the needs of the child includes primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
• Evidence‐based education and risk‐based reimbursement systems that foster a shift from surgical to preventive care.

• Preventive approaches for all pre‐school children should include:

(a) avoiding sugar intake for children under age two;
(b) limiting sugar intake in children over age two; and
(c) brushing their teeth twice daily with fluoridated toothpaste (at least 1000 ppm), using an age‐appropriate amount of paste.