Dr. Andreas Agouropoulos is Assistant Professor at the Department of Paediatric Dentistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He received a Certificate in Paediatric Dentistry from Tufts University, School of Dental Medicine, Boston, USA and a M.Sc. Degree and PhD in Oral Biology from the University of Athens. Since 2003 he is also working in private practice limited to Paediatric Dentistry. His research interest and work is focused in epidemiology, oral biology, clinical research in healthy and patients with special needs, caries risk assessment, biomaterials, patient behaviour and evidence based clinical guidelines development. He is the President of the Hellenic Society of Paediatric Dentistry, Member of the Constitution Committee of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (EAPD), member of the Education Committee of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD). He has participated as a speaker in national and international congresses, has published several articles and he has received international awards for his research work.
Dental caries is still an important health issue in childhood affecting the quality of life of the children and their families. It also creates a burden on health systems and family budgets for the provision of dental care. Prevention starting early in life is of paramount importance since the disease is fully preventable. The aetiological triad including bacteria, diet and the host has been the target of all the preventive measures applied to control the disease. Reduction of the bacterial load and sugar consumption and use of topical fluoride are traditionally the main focuses of any preventive program. Added to the above new technologies are available to increase the efficiency of the preventive program. Nevertheless, it is common for the measures to fail and the disease to progress requiring treatment, which is not easy for the patient to cope, especially at a very young age. The reason for this failure is that dental prevention focuses on the mouth rather than on the patient. It is widely recognized in the medical filed that patient behavior is the detrimental factor for the success of every treatment. The ability of a patient to understand (health literacy) and follow the necessary instructions will dictate the outcome of any treatment. As a result, the concept of patient centered care has evolved in order to approach the patient in an individualized way to achieve better results. Similarly, the preventive approach should consider the child’s and family’s characteristics for any preventive program to be successful. The aim of this presentation is to provide the evidence regarding caries prevention for paediatric patients including traditional and new technologies and ways of approaching these patients in order to have the desired outcomes, based on individual needs.
