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Background <p>The Toddler Oral Health Intervention has shown that young children’s oral health can be effectively improved through a&#xa0;low-threshold approach embedded in well-baby clinics. However, structural integration into policy and organizational routines remains limited. This study investigates the governance and policy conditions necessary for the sustainable embedding of preventive oral health care within youth health services.</p> Methods <p>A&#xa0;qualitative study was conducted in two Dutch municipalities implementing the Toddler Oral Health Intervention. Policy documents were analyzed, and two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy officers from municipalities, public health services, and a&#xa0;health insurer. Thematic analysis focused on policy positioning, financing, interorganizational collaboration, and the allocation of responsibilities.</p> Results <p>Preventive oral health care receives policy acknowledgment but remains weakly institutionalized at the governance level. Although municipalities, public health services, and health insurers share the ambition to improve oral health, they operate within divergent frameworks and mandates. Structural collaboration is impeded by unclear leadership, fragmented financing, limited policy prioritization, inadequate structural monitoring, and reliance on temporary project funding. Municipalities vary considerably in how they position preventive oral health care, leading to local differences in implementation and continuity.</p> Conclusion <p>Sustainable embedding of preventive oral health care requires clear, cross-sectoral agreements on collaboration, financing, and responsibility allocation between public and private actors. Only when oral health is treated as an integral component of youth health policy can durable collaboration emerge and can all children benefit from more equitable opportunities for good oral health.</p>

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Van onderzoek naar beleid: de uitdagingen voor bestuurlijke borging van preventieve mondzorg voor jonge kinderen binnen de jeugdgezondheidszorg

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月16日

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  • Brenda G. Grift,
  • Peggy C. J. M. van Spreuwel,
  • Katarina Jerković-Ćosić,
  • Josef J. J. M. Bruers

摘要

Background

The Toddler Oral Health Intervention has shown that young children’s oral health can be effectively improved through a low-threshold approach embedded in well-baby clinics. However, structural integration into policy and organizational routines remains limited. This study investigates the governance and policy conditions necessary for the sustainable embedding of preventive oral health care within youth health services.

Methods

A qualitative study was conducted in two Dutch municipalities implementing the Toddler Oral Health Intervention. Policy documents were analyzed, and two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy officers from municipalities, public health services, and a health insurer. Thematic analysis focused on policy positioning, financing, interorganizational collaboration, and the allocation of responsibilities.

Results

Preventive oral health care receives policy acknowledgment but remains weakly institutionalized at the governance level. Although municipalities, public health services, and health insurers share the ambition to improve oral health, they operate within divergent frameworks and mandates. Structural collaboration is impeded by unclear leadership, fragmented financing, limited policy prioritization, inadequate structural monitoring, and reliance on temporary project funding. Municipalities vary considerably in how they position preventive oral health care, leading to local differences in implementation and continuity.

Conclusion

Sustainable embedding of preventive oral health care requires clear, cross-sectoral agreements on collaboration, financing, and responsibility allocation between public and private actors. Only when oral health is treated as an integral component of youth health policy can durable collaboration emerge and can all children benefit from more equitable opportunities for good oral health.