Perceptions of Dental Hygienists and Dentists about Preventing Early Childhood Caries: A Qualitative Study.

The objective of this qualitative pilot study was to gain an in-depth understanding of dental hygienists and dentists perspectives regarding children's oral health and what needs to be done to prevent early childhood caries (ECC), the most frequent chronic disease of childhood. A skilled facilitator conducted four focus groups and four phone interviews with 20 dental hygienists and 17 dentists practicing in a variety of locations within the state of Maryland. The interview guide was based on results from previous state-wide surveys of dental hygienists and dentists. Sessions were recorded, transcribed, and reviewed by the PI and facilitator. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify and manually code themes. Focus groups and interviews provided rich and insightful information for strategies to help solve the ECC problem in Maryland, which supplemented the earlier quantitative mail survey data. Three key themes emerged: challenges to preventing ECC among low-income families; necessary educational methods and practices; and, the need for inter-professional collaboration. Discussions focused on issues related to educating parents with low oral health literacy about how to prevent ECC and the value of including non-dental health care providers, such as pediatricians and school nurses, in the caries prevention process. Current approaches to educating low-income adults about caries prevention are insufficient to prevent ECC and dental care providers cannot accomplish this goal alone. Ensuring that all dental care providers have a science-based understanding of caries prevention is critical. Integrating science-based oral health preventive care into medical and nursing undergraduate programs could increase providers' knowledge and confidence towards incorporating oral health into patient care plans; improve the oral health literacy of providers and patients; and improve patient oral health outcomes.