With all the changes and challenges we have faced as a society in the past year with the current pandemic, pediatricians should not lose sight of their important role in promoting oral health in children. While it was easy for me to note how the changes in eating habits that came with quarantine affected my clinic patients in terms of weight, I often missed an opportunity to address its potential effect on the development of the most common chronic disease of childhood, dental caries. As many as 24% of children ages 2-4, 53% of children ages 6-8, and 58% of 15-year-olds have had dental caries, and the incidence for the youngest children has only been increasing.¹ As pediatricians, we can use recommended preventative strategies in our clinic and telehealth visits.

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