Abstract
BackgroundEarly childhood caries (ECC) is the most common dental disease among children worldwide, leading to many difficulties on child’s growth. As WHO mentioned, educational interventions in addition to interprofessional collaboration are needed to achieve proper ECC prevention. In present study we’ve aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of some oral health promotion interventions to reduce dental caries among 24-month old children.MethodsA field trial study was conducted amongst 439 mothers from pregnancy up to 24 months after delivery in Public Health Centers in Varamin, Tehran, Iran. Participants were allocated to intervention (n = 239) and control groups (n = 200). Demographic, socioeconomic status and dental care behavior data were collected using a questionnaire. The content of our study intervention consisted of nutritional and behavioral oral health-related messages. Mothers received messages via either of four methods (A: comprehensive method including all other methods together (n = 74), B: group discussion by dentists (n = 59), C: face to face education by primary health care providers (n = 53), and D: social network (n = 53). The control group received routine maternal and oral health care. To assess the effectiveness of interventions on promoting children’s oral health, the oral health-related behaviors data, the number of decayed teeth (d), and being caries free at the age of two were considered.ResultsAmong the 436 examined children, with a mean age of 23.7 months, 48.2% were male. The frequency of using finger toothbrush increased from 53.4% to 89.8% in all intervention groups. The mean (SD) of decayed teeth at 24 months in intervention and control group were 0.36 (0.93) and 1.61 (2.61), respectively. All the four intervention groups, except social network, had more chance of being caries free compared to control group (P value < 0.05). Analysis showed that children in comprehensive intervention group had a higher chance of being caries free compared to all other groups, after adjustment for covariates.ConclusionsPerforming oral health interventions could help the prevention of dental caries in newborn children. Also, using a combination of different methods of sending messages can have the best results in promoting oral health.
Highlights
Childhood caries (ECC) is the most common dental disease among children worldwide, leading to many difficulties on child’s growth
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Deghatipour et al BMC Oral Health (2021) 21:637 (ECC) is a special kind of dental caries which occurs in primary dentition of young children and it is defined as presence of one or more decayed, missed as a result of caries, or filled tooth surfaces in any primary tooth in a child with 71 months of age or younger [3]
Summary
Childhood caries (ECC) is the most common dental disease among children worldwide, leading to many difficulties on child’s growth. ECC is a public health problem that was considered an epidemic condition in both industrialized and developing countries The prevalence of this condition was reported between 1 and 12% among infants in developed countries and 52% with mean dmft = 1.9 among 3-year-old Iranian children [10,11,12]. WHO stressed the urgent need for action to control this public health problem and suggested the population-based prevention of ECC using oral health educational interventions (such as avoidance of free sugars in complementary foods and drinks, promotion of breastfeeding, using finger brush or soft tooth brushing for children twice a day) targeting pregnant women, new mothers and PHCPs as well as interprofessional education with other health professions. It is recommended that, ECC prevention measures must be planned at appropriate times, such as vaccination period and developing a training package for dental and non-dental staff to provide appropriate prevention and management of ECC is necessary [14]
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