Levesque Joshua, Ghotra Suhird, Mittermuller Betty-Anne, DeMaré Daniella, Lee Victor H K, Cruz de Jesus Vivianne, Olatosi Olubukola O, Alai-Towfigh Hamideh, Schroth Robert J
Department of Preventive Dental Science, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Front Oral Health. 2024 Jan 8;4:1268350. doi: 10.3389/froh.2023.1268350. eCollection 2023.
The Canadian Dental Association (CDA) recommends children visit a dentist within 6 months of the eruption of their first tooth or by 12 months of age. The aim of this study was to investigate Canadian dentists' awareness and views on early childhood caries (ECC) and its prevention and management.
This study analyzed a subset of questions relating to dentists' knowledge of ECC and prevention strategies, from a national survey of general and pediatric dentists, commissioned by the CDA in 2013. Analyses included descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. A -value of ≤0.05 was considered significant.
Three thousand two hundred thirty-two out of 14,747 dentists responded (response rate of 21.9%), with 95.1% having heard of ECC. Overall, 60.9% of respondents reported that they were comfortable providing treatment to children with ECC. Significant differences were found between the number of years in practice and whether dentists were or were not comfortable providing prevention (19.5 ± 12.6 years vs. 25.4 ± 12.1 years; < 0.001) or treatment for patients with ECC (19.1 ± 12.7 years vs. 22.5 ± 12.3 years; < 0.001). Pediatric dentists (OR = 6.92; 95% CI: 2.57, 18.61), female dentists (OR = 1.13; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.24), dentists practicing in smaller urban areas (OR = 1.17; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.28), and dentists who were aware of the CDA's position on ECC (OR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.41) were more likely to be comfortable providing treatment for children with ECC.
While the majority of Canadian dentists have sufficient knowledge of ECC, not all are comfortable providing oral health care services to children at a young age. It is encouraging however, that most dentists are wanting additional oral health resources designed for education on ECC prevention for parents of young children.
加拿大牙科协会（CDA）建议儿童在第一颗牙齿萌出后6个月内或12个月大时去看牙医。本研究的目的是调查加拿大牙医对幼儿龋齿（ECC）及其预防和管理的认识和看法。
本研究分析了2013年CDA委托进行的一项针对普通牙医和儿科牙医的全国性调查中与牙医对ECC的认识和预防策略相关的部分问题。分析包括描述性分析、双变量分析和多变量分析。P值≤0.05被认为具有统计学意义。
14747名牙医中有3232名做出了回应（回应率为21.9%），其中95.1%听说过ECC。总体而言，60.9%的受访者表示他们愿意为患有ECC的儿童提供治疗。在从业年限以及牙医是否愿意提供预防措施（19.5±12.6年对25.4±12.1年；P<0.001）或为患有ECC的患者提供治疗方面（19.1±12.7年对22.5±12.3年；P<0.001）发现了显著差异。儿科牙医（OR=6.92；95%CI：2.57，18.61）、女牙医（OR=1.13；95%CI：1.03，1.24）、在较小城市地区执业的牙医（OR=1.17；95%CI：1.07，1.28）以及了解CDA对ECC立场的牙医（OR=1.26；95%CI：1.13，1.41）更有可能愿意为患有ECC的儿童提供治疗。
虽然大多数加拿大牙医对ECC有足够的了解，但并非所有牙医都愿意为幼儿提供口腔保健服务。然而，令人鼓舞的是，大多数牙医希望获得更多为幼儿家长提供ECC预防教育的口腔健康资源。
