The Challenge

An estimated 4 million children have dental problems so severe they have trouble eating, sleeping and learning. In fact, the U.S. Surgeon General has called oral disease a "silent epidemic".

• American children miss more than 50 million hours of school each year due to dental-related illness.
  
• According to The Surgeon General's report dental decay is the most common untreated chronic childhood illness…yet, it is one of the most easily preventable.
  
• Statistics compiled by the federal government and pediatric dental experts offer a stark illustration of oral health problems among poor children.
  
• Poor children suffer twice as much dental caries as their more affluent peers, and their disease is more likely to be untreated. Just one-quarter of U.S. children and adolescents suffer 80 percent of all cases of decay in permanent teeth.
  
• One out of four children in America is born into poverty, and children living below the poverty line (annual income of $20,000 for a family of four) have more severe and untreated decay. These poor, non-poor differences continue into adolescence.
  
• Oral diseases are progressive and cumulative and become more complex over time. They can affect the foods we choose, how we look, and the way we communicate. These diseases can affect economic productivity and compromise our ability to concentrate at home, at school, or on the job.