1512-11709

This investment supports QUEST in AI/AN Children (QUEST) to continue to convene working groups and bring subject matter experts together to report progress, and share results of their efforts to develop preventive solutions for children in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities suffering from high prevalence of severe caries in the primary dentition (CIPD). Specifically, QUEST will continue to develop, refine, and validate better tools for measuring the disease burden from severe caries in very high risk children; facilitate, coordinate and support a 3-year follow-up of an extensive longitudinal dataset of caries in young AI/AN children; coordinate and support activities by academic research centers to develop and test a field guide tool suitable for Indian Health Services (IHS) field staff to accurately identify and classify enamel defects; and support the implementation of a medical management of caries in children project using a silver nitrate/fluoride varnish protocol to control caries in AI/AN children. Despite some access to traditional preventive oral health care, children in AI/AN communities are overwhelmingly unresponsive to conventional preventive measures, and this work will build awareness and spread knowledge about effective practices that providers can employ to reduce CIPD among children in this population. QUEST will be able to leverage growing partnerships and engagement with IHS to move this work forward and the findings of this work will inform strategies for addressing the oral health status of other gap populations. $119,400 will be used to support staff time to facilitate multi-disciplinary workgroups, travel, office operations, and meeting expenses necessary for the implementation of this work. This proposal aligns with the Oral Health 2020 Goal of eradicating dental disease in children and the target that, with the closing of disparity gaps, 85% of children reach age 5 without a cavity.