Caries
Chad K. Hannibal, DDS
Pediatric Dental Resident
Interfaith Medical Center, New York, NY
One Brooklyn Health (Interfaith Medical Center)
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Tinnysha Chopra, DDS
Program Director
One Brooklyn Health
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Prevalence of caries in primary dentition of children that are enrolled in the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children
Chad Hannibal1, DDS; Jimmy Gibson, DDS1; Tinnysha Chopra, DDS; David Yen, DDS ; David Yen, PhD; David Miller, DDS
Background/Rationale: Dental caries is still considered to be the most common chronic disease in children in the United States, even with increased access to oral healthcare and education. This chronic disease continues to disproportionally affect minority children living in communities where access to healthy food choices may come at a premium. When a parent can access a grocery store with a higher variety of options, government assistance programs are available to aid parents with securing healthier food/beverage choices for their children.
Purpose: to determine if children that participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) have higher/lower caries rates when compared to children that do not participate in the government assistance program. The aim of this study is to examine if children up to the age of 5 who participate in WIC have higher caries rates versus children up to the age of 5 who do not participate in the program. This information would be beneficial to the dental community and WIC program officials by better educating patient and parent populations about which foods/beverages available with WIC are less cariogenic for consumption, which could lead to lower incidence of severe early childhood caries. The long-term goal would be for WIC to provide anticipatory guidance about diet and hygiene in coordination with pediatric dentists to endure a brighter future for oral health into adolescence and adulthood. Hypothesis: There is a higher prevalence of caries in those not enrolled in WIC when compared to those not enrolled. Experimental
Design: An anonymous 12 question survey was given to 57 parents that have children up to the age of 5, who visited of new patient exams, 6 months recall or treatment. Differences between children enrolled in WIC and those not enrolled in WIC was determined by independent samples t- tests and analysis variance. The Survey included questions about the child’s diet, previous/current dental home, prior knowledge of child caries rate percentage, previous dental emergency visits, WIC program satisfaction, MRN number of each patient to the survey to help evaluate their oral hygiene/ health and to verify how accurate the participants responses were and clinical caries present. Results: Pending.
Conclusion: Pending