About Crush Cavities

Crush Cavities is a public outreach campaign of the Minnesota Oral Health Project

Our Vision

Zero Cavities for the Children of Minnesota

Our Mission

The mission of the Minnesota Oral Health Project is to:

  1. Increase public awareness of the caries crisis affecting high-risk children
  2. Improve access to early caries preventative services through training and support for medical and dental providers, and
  3. Educate caregivers about healthy dental practices

The primary focus of our activities is children 0 – 6 years of age in Greater (rural) Minnesota.

The Minnesota Oral Health Project is a cavity-prevention program for all eighty counties in Greater Minnesota.
Our goal is to improve the oral health of high-risk children starting at birth. Because these children have minimal access to ongoing, comprehensive dental care, they are susceptible to CARIES — the process that leads to cavities.
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​BUT CARIES IS AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND IS THUS THEORETICALLY PREVENTABLE!

​Find out what your county offers—

  • Which primary care medical providers provide cavity prevention—both through education and the application of fluoride varnish quarterly to all teeth as part of well/ill child care
  • Which dentists see 1-3 year olds for prevention care as well as treatment - restorations and diagnostic needs
  • Which dentists will take children enrolled in Medicaid or MinnesotaCare

PROJECT GOALS

  • A reduction in incidence of caries in 75% of children ages 0-5 in 80 counties in Greater (rural) Minnesota by 2022
  • A reduction in incidence of caries in 75% of children ages 0 - 21 by 2025

STRATEGIES

  • Primary care medical providers (PCMP) who provide well/ill child care to children from birth to age 21 to provide caries prevention services
  • Dentists to become comfortable with treating one and two year olds
  • Community members to become more knowledgeable about oral health and about the caries crisis in their community.

UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

It is hoped that community members will be sufficiently persuasive so that:

  • All PCMP will embrace offering caries prevention services, consistent with the decision of the Department of Human Services and Department of Health to put quarterly application of fluoride varnish on the Child and Teen Checkup (MN's name for the EPSDT well-child examination) periodicity schedule
  • Many dentists will begin to feel comfortable with one and two year olds
  • Dentists will not only be interested in collaborating with PCMP but will seek them out to collaborate
  • Members of Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary Clubs will agree to be educated about caries etiology and the caregiver's role in caries prevention so they can become local, vocal advocates of MNOHP.