iReport — A toddler’s tiny teeth are destined to fall out in later years as their permanent pearly whites grow in. But for some children, especially those from low-income families, cavities and poor oral health lead to complicated dental problems long before they even graduate from their cribs.Programs designed to incorporate tooth decay prevention as part of a child’s regular checkup with the doctor could be a big step toward improving infants’ and toddlers’ dental health, say University of Florida researchers, who received a $293,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study whether such programs in Florida and Texas are actually improving dental care in young children enrolled in Medicaid.The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommend children visit the dentist for the first time by age 1, but many children do not receive preventive dental care until they are much older, if at all, said UF health economist Jill Boylston Herndon, Ph.D., the principal investigator on the two-year grant.“There is also this attitude that baby teeth are not that important,” said Frank Catalanotto, D.M.D., a professor of pediatric dentistry in the College of Dentistry who advocated for Florida to establish a program targeting early childhood caries. “But the reality is getting a cavity in a baby tooth can lead to an infection. And, in fact, several children have died over the last several years in this country of an untreated dental infection.“The tragedy of this is that it is relatively easy to prevent early childhood caries with some simple measures of just toothbrushing using a fluoridated toothpaste, not putting a baby to bed with a bottle, and a dental visit with an application of a fluoride varnish,” added Catalanotto, a co-investigator on the grant."