{"id":44729,"date":"2025-08-01T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=44729"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:06:15","slug":"topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/","title":{"rendered":"Topical Fluoride for Children (TFC)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons 1\u20134 years of age who received at least two fluoride varnish applications during the measurement period.<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><strong>Topical fluoride plays an important role in preventing dental decay (cavities) caused by dental caries in children.<\/strong> Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children in the United States. From 2015\u20132016, prevalence of total (untreated and treated) caries-related tooth decay was 46% for children 2\u201319 years <sup><a href=\"#ref-1\">1<\/a><\/sup>. As children age, the prevalence increases from 21% (2\u20135 years) to 51% (6\u201311 years), to 54% (12\u201319 years). Overall, the prevalence of untreated caries was 13.0%. If untreated, dental caries can lead to difficulties with eating, speaking and learning <sup><a href=\"#ref-1\">1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">There can be significant payoffs to investing in oral health. Persons in communities with fluoridated water have fewer cavities than persons in those without it <sup><a href=\"#ref-2\">2<\/a><\/sup>. In one simulation study conducted in Virginia for Medicaid eligible children younger than 3 years, the authors estimated that receiving fluoride varnish would reduce the percentage of 7\u00bd-year-old children with tooth decay from 63% to 40%. Primary care physicians applying fluoride varnish would save Medicaid more than $75 per child, totaling almost $2M\/year for Virginia Medicaid <sup><a href=\"#ref-3\">3<\/a><\/sup>. It has been estimated that providing fluoridated water to communities for 1 year could save $6.5B in future dental treatment costs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The USPSTF recommends that primary care clinicians prescribe oral fluoride supplementation for children younger than 5, starting at 6 months for those whose water supply is deficient in fluoride, and apply varnish to the primary teeth of all infants and children, starting at the age of primary tooth eruption <sup><a href=\"#ref-4\">4<\/a><\/sup>. The AAPD recommends that topical fluoride treatments be provided every 6 months, or at an interval appropriate to the child\u2019s needs, starting at 12\u201324 months and continuing into adolescence <sup><a href=\"#ref-4\">4<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><i>*This measure has been included in and\/or adapted for HEDIS with the permission of the Dental Quality Alliance (DQA) and American Dental Association (ADA). \u00a9 2025 DQA on behalf of ADA, all rights reserved.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-teams=\"true\">Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Performance results for this measure are currently unavailable.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons 1\u20134 years of age who received at least two fluoride varnish applications during the measurement period. Why It Matters Topical fluoride plays an important role in preventing dental decay (cavities) caused by dental caries in children. Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children in the United States. From [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-44729","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Topical Fluoride for Children (TFC) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The percentage of persons 1\u20134 years of age who received at least two fluoride varnish applications during the measurement period.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Topical Fluoride for Children (TFC) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The percentage of persons 1\u20134 years of age who received at least two fluoride varnish applications during the measurement period.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-19T21:06:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/\",\"name\":\"Topical Fluoride for Children (TFC) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-19T21:06:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"The percentage of persons 1\u20134 years of age who received at least two fluoride varnish applications during the measurement period.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/topical-fluoride-for-children-tfc\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Topical Fluoride for Children (TFC)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. 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