The “drill and fill” approach to combating poor oral health in children no longer works, according to Research Fellow Dr. Shalika Hegde of Dental Health Services Victoria (DHSV). New models of care are necessary, she said, as treating individuals solely in clinical settings and focusing entirely on individuals at high risk for oral disease is not effective.
“By doing so, we are only treating the symptoms of the disease. To improve oral health, we need to focus on prevention, invest our scarce resources meaningfully, and look beyond just clinical settings,” said Hegde. “Strong links between children’s settings and community-based dental services are required to ensure that children receive the treatment and preventive services needed, as early as possible.”
Writing for Cochrane, Hegde found that oral health promotion interventions that included supervised tooth brushing with fluoridated toothpaste generally were effective in reducing decay in baby teeth. Also, interventions of oral health education provided in an educational setting combined with professional preventive oral care in a dental clinic were effective in reducing caries in permanent teeth.
Furthermore, improving access to fluoride in its various forms and reducing sugar consumption seem be additional promising intervention approaches, though evidence is limited, according to Hegde’s review.
“This study is the first of its kind focusing on community-based population-level oral health promoting interventions targeting children from birth to 18 years of age,” said Deborah Cole, BDSc, CEO of DHSV. “DHSV has a strong focus on evidence-based practice through the Centre for Applied Oral Health Research, which brings together a spectrum of high-quality, population-level oral-health research evidence.”
The study, “Community-Based, Population-Level Interventions for Promoting Child Oral Health,” was published by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
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