Caries control in health service practice

Assessments of the socioeconomic status and diet on the prevalence of dental caries at school children in central bosnian canton

AIM

The main aim of this research was to determine the influence of socioeconomic status and residence/living conditions on the status of oral health (e.g. health of mouth and teeth) in primary school students residing in Canton Central Bosnia.

METHODS

The study was designed as a cross-sectional study. Our research included two-phased stratified random sample of 804 participants. The quantitative research method and newly designed survey instrument were utilized in order to provide data on the oral health of the examined children. The alternate hypothesis foresaw that "there were significant statistical differences between the levels of incidence of dental caries in comparison to the incidence in children of different socioeconomic status.

RESULTS

The Chi square () of 22.814, degree of freedom (Df) = 8, coefficient of contingency of 0.163 and T-test (Stat) of-0.18334 showed that there were no significant statistical differences at p < 0.05 level between the primary school children from urban and rural areas. The obtained results showed that the caries indexes in elementary schools in Central Bosnia Canton were fairly uniform. Research showed that there were a difference in the attitudes towards a regular dental visits, which correlated with social-educational structure of the children's' families.

CONCLUSION

According to the results, we can see that the socioeconomic status of patients had an effect on the occurrence of dental caries and oral hygiene in patients in relation to the rural and urban areas, because we can see that by the number of respondents, the greater unemployment of parents in both, rural and urban areas, caused a host of other factors, which were, either, directly or indirectly connected with the development of caries.

School-Based Educational Intervention to Improve Children's Oral Health-Related Knowledge

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate a brief oral health promotion intervention delivered in schools by a primary care dental practice, aimed at changing oral health care knowledge and oral health-related behaviors in children.

DESIGN

Cohort study with pretest-posttest design.

SETTING

Three primary schools.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred and fifty children (aged 9-12 years).

INTERVENTION

Children received a 60-minute theory-driven classroom-based interactive educational session delivered by a dental care professional and received take-home literature on oral health.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

All children completed a questionnaire on oral health-related knowledge and self-reported oral health-related behaviors before, immediately after, and 6 weeks following the intervention.

RESULTS

Children's dental knowledge significantly improved following the intervention, with improvement evident at immediate follow-up and maintained 6 weeks later. Significantly more children reported using dental floss 6 weeks after the intervention compared with baseline. No significant differences were detected in toothbrushing or dietary behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

School-based preventative oral health education delivered by primary care dental practices can generate short-term improvements in children's knowledge of oral health and some aspects of oral hygiene behavior. Future research should engage parents/carers and include objective clinical and behavioral outcomes in controlled study designs.

Minimal intervention dentistry for managing dental caries - a review: report of a FDI task group

This publication describes the history of minimal intervention dentistry (MID) for managing dental caries and presents evidence for various carious lesion detection devices, for preventive measures, for restorative and non-restorative therapies as well as for repairing rather than replacing defective restorations. It is a follow-up to the FDI World Dental Federation publication on MID, of 2000. The dental profession currently is faced with an enormous task of how to manage the high burden of consequences of the caries process amongst the world population. If it is to manage carious lesion development and its progression, it should move away from the 'surgical' care approach and fully embrace the MID approach. The chance for MID to be successful is thought to be increased tremendously if dental caries is not considered an infectious but instead a behavioural disease with a bacterial component. Controlling the two main carious lesion development related behaviours, i.e. intake and frequency of fermentable sugars, to not more than five times daily and removing/disturbing dental plaque from all tooth surfaces using an effective fluoridated toothpaste twice daily, are the ingredients for reducing the burden of dental caries in many communities in the world. FDI's policy of reducing the need for restorative therapy by placing an even greater emphasis on caries prevention than is currently done, is therefore, worth pursuing.

Dentistry and population approaches for preventing dental diseases

Dental professionals are expected to engage in oral disease prevention, but their tools limit the approach to chair side activities based on the common notion that the major dental diseases, dental caries, gingivitis and periodontitis, are behavioural diseases shaped by individual lifestyles. However, lifestyles also have causes and individual behaviours reflect cultural norms, expectations and opportunities that are socio-economically determined and structurally maintained. Importantly, the effects of the societal and socio-economic determinants reach way above their influences as individual attributes, and effective approaches to the prevention and control of oral diseases are aligned with this causal chain. Unfortunately, the ethos and philosophy of dentistry is focused to a downstream, patient-centred, curative and rehabilitative approach to oral diseases. Whilst such services are needed to care for those who have already suffered the consequences of oral diseases, they do not influence population oral health. A more balanced distribution of efforts and resources along the whole range of intervention points from the downstream curative to the upstream structural healthy policy approaches is required if appropriate, evidence-based, effective, cost-effective, sustainable, equitable, universal, comprehensive and ethical delivery of health care, including oral health care, is the goal. The implementation of healthy policies and sound approaches to population oral health will require substantial commitment and political will on the part of the public and their elected officials.

The Use of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) in a National Health Service General Dental Practice as Part of an Oral Health Assessment

Introduction

The Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) is developing guidance for oral health assessment and review that is intended for use in National Health Service (NHS) general dental practice. One section of this guidance is assessment of the teeth, including their caries status. The detailed caries assessment method identified by the guidance group is the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS).

Aim

The aim of this study was to investigate the implications of using the ICDAS in an NHS general practice and, in particular, the time taken to use the system.

Method

After online and in-practice training and calibration, 50 adult and 50 child patients were randomly allocated for assessment using the ICDAS detection codes. The ICDAS protocol states that the teeth should be clean and dry. For this study, all patients had their teeth brushed by the dentist before the assessment and the results were recorded on draft ICDAS clinical pro forma sheets. The time taken for the assessment was assessed with a stopwatch and recorded in a spreadsheet program.

Results

The results showed that the mean time for the assessment of an adult was 3.80 minutes, or 4.99 minutes if the time for pre-examination cleaning and drying was included. For a child, the mean time was 2.53 minutes, or 3.99 minutes if pre-examination brushing time was included.

Conclusions

These results indicate that with training and experience, it is possible to carry out an ICDAS assessment in a time that is practical in general dental practice.