Child indicators: dental health.

Maintaining good dental health among children in the United States today should be easy: regular tooth brushing, flossing, exposure to fluoride, and attention to good nutrition, together with visits to a dentist twice a year, should be enough to assure that a child rarely suffers the pain of an abscessed tooth, or loses a tooth to severe decay. However, many young children, especially those living in poor families, continue to suffer with mouths full of deep cavities, swollen jaws and cheeks, and episodes of around-the-clock pain. Some children regard tooth decay as inevitable and the pain associated with dental therapy as so unpleasant that they would rather have their teeth pulled than fixed.1