Barriers to dental care in a rural community

Timing, reasons, and predictors for first dental visits among children seen at two university hospitals

BACKGROUND

Dental caries is the most common chronic childhood disease. The recommended age for the first dental visit (FDV) is 1 year, yet a minority of children visit before the age of 3 years.

AIM

The aim of the study was to estimate the patterns of and predictors for dental visits among a sample of children.

DESIGN

Parents of children between the ages of 6 months and 18 years, who attended the paediatric dentistry clinics and the well-baby clinics, were recruited. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the predictors of ever visiting a dentist.

RESULTS

The mean age at FDV was 5.8 ± 2.1 years. Parents' belief of not needing to see a dentist was the most common barrier to visiting a dentist (33%). Among the reasons for FDV, caries and pain were the most common (45% and 20%, respectively). Predictors of ever visiting a dentist were children who are not an only child and children of parents who visited a dentist themselves.

CONCLUSION

Children visited the dentist at an age older than that recommended, and the reasons for FDV were mainly caries and its consequences.

Knowledge and attitudes toward evidence-based cariology and restorative dentistry among Egyptian dental practitioners: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

This is the first study to assess Egyptian dental practitioners' knowledge about conservative caries management approaches and investigate whether this knowledge transfers into clinical practice and the barriers to translating research into evidence-based practice.

METHODS

A sample of dental practitioners was surveyed using an online questionnaire. Convenience and snowball sampling were used to collect data from February to June 2022. We included graduated dentists from Egyptian universities who practiced in Egypt. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and the associations between variables were checked using Kruskal Wallis and Chi-Square tests.

RESULTS

This study included 396 participants from throughout Egypt. There were significant correlations between specialty and participants' knowledge and behaviors toward evidence-based caries management (p = 0.002) and between specialization and tools used to detect carious lesions (p < 0.001). Most participants (59.1%) used G.V Black's classification, and (80.8%) removed caries based on the feature of dentin hardness and color, whereas (67%) removed caries until hard dentine remained. The participants' primary hurdle to staying up-to-date was their belief that the newly gained information would not be clinically applicable due to a lack of equipment or working in low-economic areas. Patient-related barriers were the major obstacles for participants in implementing evidence-based practice.

CONCLUSION

Egyptian dentists did not fully embrace minimal invasive approaches for caries management, and practitioners' experiences continue to shape decision-making. It emphasizes the imperative to practically educate dentists using effective knowledge translation dissemination to promote evidence adoption in daily practice and advocate value-based dental care to address the economic crisis's impact on Egypt's healthcare.