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Improving Dental Health Among Toddlers in the Dominican Republic

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Dental Caries in Children
Dental Caries
Interventions
Behavioral: Oral Health education including printed educational material
Registration Number
NCT04101617
Lead Sponsor
Universidad Iberoamericana
Brief Summary

Caries prevalence in the Dominican Republic (DR) seems high, although recent information is lacking. In DR there is a growth and development program for all children from the age of 0 to 5.Even though there is a mandatory educational health program for children and parents in this program, where periodically pediatricians examine them, this program does not include oral health education/prevention. Thus, it is proposed A) to devise materials to be used by pediatricians to share relevant information about caries control to parents of toddlers, and B) to evaluate the impact of such material on caries prevention for groups of toddlers over a 1.5-year period. Educational material will be developed for parents, and the pediatricians will deliver this material to 10-months-old children randomly selected at Plaza de la Salud Hospital. The PI will train the pediatricians in caries prevention and how to deliver the information to the parents in a clear manner. A total of 306 will be allocated into two groups. The experimental group (128 children) will receive the devised educational materials at 10 months, follow-up information will be provided at growth and development visits when the child is 18-, and 24 months old. The second group will be considered as the control group and will not receive any educational materials (178 children). All the enrolled children will receive fluoride containing toothpaste and tooth brushes. After 18 months when the children will be about 3 years old they will be examined to assess dental caries status. A sample mortality rate of 40% is expected during the two-year follow-up. Differences in caries status between the two groups will be examined using Welch's independent t-tests for unequal variances.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
306
Inclusion Criteria
  • Healthy children
  • Parents agreed to participate in the program
Exclusion Criteria

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Experimental groupOral Health education including printed educational materialParticipants will receive previously designed educational material with recommendations for healthy habits and oral health recommendations. Also, pediatricians will give the parents oral health education. Parents and their children will receive toothbrushes as well as toothpaste.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Dental caries statusUp to ten months

Detection of dental caries lesions using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) criteria.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Hospital General Plaza de la Salud

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Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic

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