Background Children with dental caries (tooth decay), the world’s most prevalent noncommunicative disease, face severe negative impacts on health and quality of life.

Methods The CariedAway trial is a study of the non-inferiority of WHO-sponsored essential medicines when used in a pragmatic, school-based caries prevention model. We present data on severity of disease, evidence of traditional dental care, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on urgent needs of low-income, minority children in New York City.

Results Of the 1398 children enrolled in CariedAway, approximately 30% had untreated caries on any dentition at baseline and only 11% of children presented with evidence of having received preventive dental sealants. When follow-up observations were performed after 24 months, 4% of children had developed fistula and nearly 10% presented with pulpal involvement.

Conclusion School-based caries prevention programs are attractive public health interventions to overcome access barriers to dental care and reduce oral health inequities. We show that there are severe unmet needs in minority urban children that are further exacerbated by a lack of access to care during disease outbreaks. School-based programs using essential medicines can provide lasting care during pandemic periods.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

NCT03442309

https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-018-2891-1

Research reported in this publication was funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award (PCS-1609-36824). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funding organization, New York University, or the NYU College of Dentistry.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

IRB approval from the New York School of Medicine Institutional Review Board (#i17-00578)

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CariedAway is an active trial. Data requests will be reviewed and may be available upon approval.