Native American children also live in our communities.
Increasing urbanization of Native Americans will bring community health practitioners into contact with a patient population that has potentially different cultural orientations and with individuals in difficult general health and living conditions. Pediatric providers will be faced with a population of youngsters, a greater percentage of whom will have disabilities than the general pediatric population. The challenge will be to meet the "usual" oral health needs of community youngsters--family members whose heritage and culture may be quite different from those of the practitioner and staff.