5 Ways Children’s Hospitals Support Dental Health

Dental health is inseparable from children’s health.

Tooth decay is the most common chronic condition in childhood — and it’s much more than an inconvenience. It can keep kids from eating, disrupt sleep, and interfere with speech. Left untreated, it leads to infection and long-term health complications. For children with complex medical needs, poor oral health can also complicate surgeries, delay treatments, and increase the risk of serious infections.

Children’s hospitals provide comprehensive care that addresses all aspects of a child's well-being, including dental health. Here are five ways children's hospitals promote and support optimal dental care for children.

1. Treat complex cases

Kids rely on children's hospitals for acute dental issues that can’t be safely or effectively treated in a traditional dental office setting — whether it’s abscesses, severe gum infections, or broken jaws. Most acute or complex cases require specialized staff and equipment only available at children’s hospitals. Highly trained pediatric surgeons provide extremely delicate, full rehabilitation of injuries to the teeth and face. Hospital dentists can also perform multiple major dental procedures in one session, which limits risks to patients and lowers the burden on families.

2. Care for children with complex or special needs

Toddlers can’t sit through extensive dental procedures. Other children get severe anxiety or have behavioral challenges. Children with developmental differences or sensory sensitivities may not tolerate bright lights, loud tools, or unfamiliar routines. Children with complex medical conditions need continuous medical monitoring and multidisciplinary care during dental procedures. Children’s hospitals provide the child-friendly, multidisciplinary, and tailored dental care these kids need.

3. Provide preventive care

In addition to caring for complex cases, children’s hospital dental clinics provide routine dental care that keeps teeth healthy. And many children’s hospitals integrate oral health into primary and specialty care through screening, education, and referrals into routine visits. In the hospital, frontline clinicians are often the first to identify dental concerns and connect families to care. These early interventions slow disease progression and prevent bigger issues down the road.

4. Train pediatric dentists

Pediatric dentists learn to manage the most medically complex dental cases at children’s hospitals. Residents train in operating rooms, emergency departments, and inpatient units, treating children under sedation or general anesthesia. They learn to manage dental trauma, coordinate with medical teams, and recognize when oral disease threatens overall health. This hospital-based training, made possible by the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program, prepares dentists to care for children with special health care needs and builds a workforce capable of handling cases that go far beyond routine cleanings and fillings.

5. Address disparities

Disparities in oral health mirror broader inequities in health care access. Children from low-income families and rural communities are more likely to experience untreated dental disease. Children’s hospitals partner with community providers, schools, and public health agencies to expand access and coordinate care. Many send mobile clinics to neighborhoods with low access to care, offering comprehensive dental care to those who need it most.