Early Childhood Caries (ECC), or tooth decay in very young children is a chronic, infectious dental disease. And yet, Early Childhood Caries is almost completely preventable. In 2008, the DentaQuest Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and St. Joseph's Health Services of RI teamed up to launch the Early Childhood Caries (ECC) Collaborative to develop new treatment protocols, and to reduce the number of children with ECC that were requiring surgical treatment in operating rooms, requiring sedation or general anesthesia.
Phase III of ECC Collaborative was recently completed. As of 2015, the Collaborative had expanded to 32 sites nationwide. The positive impact has been widely reported in several national journals and publications, including the International Journal Dentistry, the Journal for Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, the Boston Globe and the New York Times.
This piece was written and edited by Mike Chvany and features footage that Bridge Street has captured over the past few years at a variety of DentaQuest Institute sponsored events.