mHealth promotion for parents to improve children’s oral health

daniel-korpai-Y3LGWCsrgmg-unsplash

This review of the effectiveness of the mHealth-delivered oral health education to parents parents regarding the improvement of parents’ knowledge, behaviours and children’s oral health status included 12 studies. The studies findings were variable with some demonstrating benefit and some no benefit with all 8 of the included RCTs being at high risk of bias.

[read the full story...]

Oral health interventions in children and adolescents with special needs

Down Syndrome

Carly Ross takes a look at this review of different oral health education and promotion interventions for children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Eighteen studies were included but they mainly of very low to low certainty.

[read the full story...]

Dry mouth: Are oral health programmes for community dwelling elderly beneficial?

Older people with learning disabilities need opportunities to speak for themselves

This review of whether oral health promotion programmes for community‐dwelling elderly were effective in improving oral health and oral saliva secretion or in decreasing dry mouth included 9 studies most of which came from a single country

[read the full story...]

Early childhood caries: Preventive interventions for pregnant and nursing mothers and other primary caregivers

shutterstock_124896361

This Cochrane review asessing interventions with pregnant women, new mothers or other primary caregivers of infants in the first year of life for preventing early childhood caries included 17 RCTs .

[read the full story...]

Early childhood caries: modifiable risk factors

shutterstock_156617546

This review of evidence pertaining to the effect of modifiable risk factors on early childhood caries(ECC) includes 133 mainly observational data providing moderate certainty evidence that breastfeeding up to 2 y of age does not increase ECC risk , and that providing access to fluoridated water and educating caregivers are justified approaches to ECC

[read the full story...]

Motivational Interviewing for adolescent oral health

iStock_000013941806XSmall teenagers queuing

This large well-conducted 3-arm cluster RCT compared motivational interviewing(MI) with prevailing health education. Both MI arms of the study were more effective in eliciting positive changes in adolescents’ oral health behaviours and preventing dental caries after 12 months.

[read the full story...]

School-based oral health education only has short term impact

The review found that adding family-based interventions to school-based interventions may reduce the onset of smoking by 4-25%.

This review of school-based oral health education included 12 trials and found it was effective in reducing plaque accumulation over a short period. there was no long-term evidence on the effectiveness.

[read the full story...]

Caries prevention in young children: topical fluoride alone not sufficient suggests trial

caries upper arch

This large trial investigated the use of a ‘preventive package’ of fluoride varnish, fluoride toothpaste, toothbrush and standard dental health education in children between 2-3 years attending general practice. The intervention did not keep young children caries free but did reduce caries levels.

[read the full story...]

Computer games for oral health education in young children

Behavioural and cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions are effective at improving child conduct problems, parental mental health and parenting skills in the short term, in the parents of children aged 3-12.

This small RCT of a computer game to deliver oral health education in high caries risk children and families was highly satisfactory to users. Improvements in knowledge were demonstrated is the short term > however there was a high drop out rate an further studies are needed to assess change sin other groups and longer term benefits.

[read the full story...]