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Primary Care Clinicians Urged To Apply Fluoride Varnish to Children’s Teeth
he U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has come out in favor of applying fluoride varnish on the teeth of children younger than 5 years to help prevent cavities. The task force, an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine, is recommending that primary care clinicians apply fluoride varnish to the teeth of all children beginning when their teeth first start coming in and that they prescribe oral fluoride supplementation for children 6 months and older whose water supply doesn’t contain enough fluoride. The task force determined that there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against primary care clinicians regularly screening for cavities with an exam in children younger than 5 years old. z
Buffalo Grad Named to Top Post at NIDCR THE NEW DEPUTY DIRECTOR of the National Institute Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health is a graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine who is licensed to practice in New York State. Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque, D.D.S., Ph.D., has joined NIDCR after 21 years at the University of North Carolina schools of dentistry and medicine, where she was a professor, attending at the UNC Hospital dental clinic and researcher. The focus of Dr. Webster-Cyriaque’s research has been HIV, particularly its impact on oral health. In addition to her research, Dr. Webster-Cyriaque has held leadership roles with the Oral HIV/AIDS Research Alliance, the National Dental Association Foundation, the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research and the International Association for Dental Research. Dr. Webster-Cyriaque earned her Ph.D. in microbiology/immunology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1998, her D.D.S. from SUNY Buffalo in 1992, and her B.A. in biology and interdisciplinary social science from SUNY Buffalo in 1988. z
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