Anticipatory Guidance

Anticipatory guidance is the implementation of preventive strategies based on a risk assessment. It is more desirable to pre-emptively provide education that might prevent the development of a pathological condition than to treat the condition once it has occurred. For the infant or toddler, a caries risk assessment will typically dictate the focus of education in order to minimize the odds of development of early childhood caries. For the adolescent patient, anticipatory guidance not only includes caries reduction strategies based on a caries risk assessment, but also includes preventive measures aimed at reducing the likelihood that adolescents would choose to participate in behavior that could jeopardize their oral health.