Good oral health begins in childhood, yet approximately one out of three 2- to 5-year-old children in the United States has experienced tooth decay. Part of the challenge is that parents need to incorporate good preventive strategies at a time when difficult behaviors emerge. Evidence suggests using behavioral parenting strategies to help.

One such strategy is the prevention intervention program BeReady2Smile (BR2S), which introduces behavioral training strategies, promotes dental health and targets parents of young children attending parenting education classes and those receiving home visiting services through Head Start.

Building on that program is BeReady2Smile_ProD, which improves dissemination and implementation of BR2S and enables both home-based and group-based delivery. The program helps educate and support parenting educators and strives to help parents provide the foundation for a lifetime free from preventable oral disease.