Other
Estela Gomez Licea, DDS (she/her/hers)
Resident PGY2
University of Texas —San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
University of Texas San Antonio Tx
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Maria Jose Cervantes Mendez, DDS
Postdoctoral Program Director in Pediatric Dentistry
Univeristy of Texas Health Science Center - San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, United States
Purpose: Determine if families of children with Early Childhood Caries (ECC) or Severe Early Childhood Caries (SECC) with access to dental services via Texas Title V grant or Medicaid, in an underserved area, may benefit from a visual component in our discussion of caries development and create long lasting oral health care behaviors.
Methods: An English or Spanish survey was given to parents of children with SECC or ECC with questions of current nutrition habits, access to food, and oral hygiene habits. Their selected action plan was a long-term habit change they would initiate at home. Families were randomly placed in an intervention or control group. Intervention consisted of showing 7 images from the book, "The Grosser, More Disgusting, But Still Totally Cool Mouth Book" By Dr. Theodore Croll, with a 2–3-minute discussion about caries development and risk factors. A telephone call at 3 weeks and 3 months post initial survey helped determine if families had continued the chosen behavioral change.
Results: In the intervention group, 62% (7 of 11 participants) continued their behavioral change after 3 months, while only 43% (3 of 7 participants) did so in the control group. A majority of intervention and control group participants had a high school or lower educational level and 82% had juice or soda as the primary drink at home.
Conclusion: The intervention group showed slightly more follow through in continuing their desired long-term behavioral change at home, however, there was not statistically significant (p < 0.05) difference revealed between the groups.