Abstract
Early childhood caries (ECC) remains the single most common chronic childhood disease. Untreated caries can cause tooth loss and compromised dentition. Severe ECC can also influence nutrition intake, cognitive development, general health and quality of life. In Hong Kong, approximately half of 5-year-old children suffer from ECC, and more than 90% of these caries remain untreated. Thus, the development of effective strategies for promoting the oral health of preschool children is warranted. The Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Hong Kong has provided kindergarten-based dental outreach services to selected kindergartens since 2008. In 2020, the project expanded to serve all kindergarten children in Hong Kong. The aim of the service is to improve oral health through the prevention and control of ECC among preschool children. The service provides dental screening and silver diamine fluoride treatment for ECC management. In addition, the parents receive oral health talks, and teachers receive training in delivering regular oral health education at kindergarten. The objectives of this service are to improve oral and general health of preschool children, develop the children’s good oral health-related behaviours, maintain the children’s psychological well-being and reduce the burden on their family. This paper describes this kindergarten-based dental outreach service.
Highlights
Childhood caries (ECC) is defined as the presence of one or more decayed, missing or filled tooth surfaces in any primary tooth in a child younger than 71 months of age [1]
This paper is a detailed communication of this large-scale kindergarten-based dental outreach service project
The majority of the epidemiological surveys found that Early childhood caries (ECC) remained prevalent in young children worldwide [8]
Summary
Childhood caries (ECC) is defined as the presence of one or more decayed, missing or filled tooth surfaces in any primary tooth in a child younger than 71 months of age [1]. In Hong Kong, a kindergarten-based dental outreach services project aiming at preventing and controlling of ECC among preschool children has been launched to service all kindergarten children in the area. To our knowledge, this is the first community preventive programme using silver diamine fluoride (SDF) reported in the literature. This paper is a detailed communication of this large-scale kindergarten-based dental outreach service project. Infection;(b)(b) severe affected this child’s nutrition, growth, and physical and psychological and general health
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