MySmileBuddy: Digital health platform for pediatric dental care

This educational and family-support technology is a low-cost digital platform that helps parents and caregivers navigate the day-to-day management of their children’s dietary and hygienic risks for tooth decay.

Unmet Need: Affordable method of managing and preventing childhood tooth decay

In the U.S., nearly half of children under age six experience tooth decay with many experiencing significant consequences of pain, infection, and dysfunction. Young children from low-income families are disproportionately affected. Current dental treatments for early childhood tooth decay are expensive and imposing. They often fail to reduce caries risk or disease progression because they do not effectively address underlying behavioral causes. There is a need for a low-cost solution that improves children’s oral health through prevention and disease management.

The Technology: Low-cost platform to manage childhood tooth decay and prevent or minimize dental surgery

MSB is a web-based digital health platform that guides parents of young children through the day-to-day management of health-behavior risks for childhood tooth decay. MSB complements or minimizes the need for conventional high-cost dental treatment. MSB can improve child and family experience and long-term health outcomes at lower costs than conventional care alone. Built on establish theories of health behavior change and motivational interviewing, it is comprehensive, engaging, educational, and motivational when used alone or with support of a coach, like a community health worker, health professional, or child-and-family service provider.

Applications:

• Improve long-term dental health in children
• Improve healthy equity in lower income populations
• Reduce childhood tooth decay
• Increase access to dental education and care

Advantages:

• Low-cost approach to childhood tooth decay prevention and management
• Non-invasive approach to tooth decay that targets root causes
• Easily disseminated to lower income communities that may not have ready access to dental care
• Compatible with common smart devices – computers, tablets, and phones

Lead Inventor:

Burton Edelstein, MPH, DDS

Related Publications:

• Lumsden C, Wolf R, Contento I, Basch C, Zybert P, Koch P, Edelstein B. Feasibility, Acceptability, and Short-term Behavioral Impact of the MySmileBuddy Intervention for Early Childhood Caries. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2019;30(1):59-69

• Chinn CH, Levine J, Matos S, Findley S, Edelstein BL. An interprofessional collaborative approach in the development of a caries risk assessment mobile tablet application: My Smile Buddy. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2013 Aug;24(3):1010-20

Tech Ventures Reference:

• IR, CU13063, CU18320, CU23288

• Licensing Contact: Cynthia Lang