Prevention and Management of Dental Caries in Children
- Guidance in Brief summarises the main recommendations and clinical practice advice within the full guidance
- Full Guidance provides more detail about the recommendations and how to follow them, including illustrated step-by-step advice on individual clinical techniques and flowcharts for decision making about prevention and management options
Also available via the SDCEP Dental Companion app.
Versions in accessible formats (Word) are also available
These publications are only available as downloadable online resources. They are not available in print.
About this guidance
Prevention and Management of Dental Caries in Children aims to support dental teams to improve and maintain the oral health of their younger patients through the delivery of preventive care and, where necessary, effective management of dental caries. The second edition includes advice on
- assessment of the child and family
- helping the family manage dental care
- delivery of preventive care based on caries risk
- choosing from the range of caries management options available
- delivery of restorative care, including how to carry out specific treatments
- referral and recall
- management of suspected dental neglect
- working with other agencies to support and safeguard the wellbeing of children and young people
NICE has accredited the process used by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme to produce its Prevention and Management of Dental Caries in Children guidance. Accreditation is valid for 5 years from 15 March 2016. More information on accreditation can be viewed at www.nice.org.uk/accreditation. Further information about NICE accreditation of SDCEP guidance can be viewed at NICE Accreditation.
The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry has endorsed this guidance as a source of reliable, high quality professional advice that promotes the provision of safe and effective oral health care for patients.
The second edition of this guidance is based on consideration of available evidence and the opinion of dental experts and experienced practitioners and has been subject to open consultation and peer review prior to finalising for publication.
Recommendations for caries prevention in children are primarily based on the evidence on which the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) guideline 138 Dental Interventions to Prevent Caries in Children is based. Recommendations on the management of dental caries have been expanded, with a more comprehensive approach to management of children’s primary and permanent teeth and management techniques presented in a separate section.
The methodology used for the development of this guidance, including details of the evidence search strategy, evidence appraisals and information about conflict of interests can be found in the Prevention and Management of Dental Caries in Children Methodology document, available on request. For further information on the SDCEP guidance development process, please click here or contact the SDCEP office (email@example.com).
Guidance Development Group
A Guidance Development Group comprising individuals from relevant branches of the dental profession and two patient representatives was convened to update this guidance.
|Barbara Chadwick (Co-Chair)||Professor of Paediatric Dentistry, Vice-Dean, School of Dentistry, Cardiff University|
|Nicola Innes (Co-Chair)||Professor of Paediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of Dundee|
|Paul Ashley||Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London|
|Sarah-Louise Blackwood||Patient Representative|
|David Conway||Professor of Dental Public Health, University of Glasgow|
|Timothy Cooke||Senior Dental Officer, Public Dental Service, Nairn, NHS Highland|
|Brett Duane||Associate Professor in Dental Public Health, Trinity College, Dublin|
|Dafydd Evans||Honorary Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry, University of Dundee|
|Martin Foster||Specialist in Paediatric Dentistry, Children’s Dental Service, NHS Lothian|
|Alex Keightley||Consultant and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry, Edinburgh Dental Institute|
|Nicole Kettles||General Dental Practitioner|
|Peter King||Childsmile Programme Manager (West Region)|
|Maxine Lee||BSc Programme Lead, Oral Health Sciences, Dundee Dental Hospital|
|Gillian Nevin||General Dental Practitioner; Assistant Director of Postgraduate GDP Education, NHS Education for Scotland|
|Derek Richards||Consultant in Dental Public Health, South East Scotland|
|Marguerite Robertson||Patient Representative|
|Margaret Ross||Senior Lecturer for Dental Care Professionals, Edinburgh Dental Institute|
SDCEP acknowledges the important contribution of all those who commented during the consultation and peer review stages.
Review and updating
For this guidance, a review of the topic will take place five years after publication and, if this has changed significantly, the guidance will be updated accordingly.