Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology

OBJECTIVE: An important part of Norwegian welfare policy is to provide subsidized orthodontic treatment for children and adolescents. The objective of this policy is that dental services should be allocated according to children's need for treatment, and not according to parents' ability to pay. The probability of receiving orthodontic treatment independent of parent's household income was examined. METHODS: The study population encompassed children and adolescents aged 10-18 years in 2019 (n = 354 439)...

BACKGROUND: The sustainability of school-based oral health programs depends on the utilization of effective, efficient treatments and the availability of a trained clinical workforce. The objective of this study was to determine whether registered nurses are comparable to dental hygienists in the application and effectiveness of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) and fluoride varnish (FV) for the prevention of dental caries. METHODS: CariedAway was a school-based study of SDF and FV versus dental sealants and atraumatic restorations...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe caries prevalence and experience trends of permanent teeth among Singapore schoolchildren between 2007 and 2019. METHODS: Anonymized records of all 6-year-old Primary 1 (P1), 11-year-old Primary 6 (P6) and 14-year-old Secondary 3 (S3) before the start of each school year were extracted from the Integrated Dental Electronic Assessment System (IDEAS) by school level, ethnicity and sex. Prais-Winsten regression was used to assess trends of mean decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) and caries prevalence (% DMFT > 0) among the schoolchildren by school level, with reported Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) together with respective 95% confidence interval (CI)...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the perception of parents or caregivers regarding the need for dental appointments for adolescents aged 12-13 years and associated factors. METHODS: Data from the Pelotas 2004 Birth Cohort were used. The outcome variable was the need for dental appointments for young adolescents perceived by parents or caregivers. Demographic and economic exposure variables were obtained from the first (2004) and sixth general follow-up (2015), respectively...

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aimed to comprehensively summarize and critically assess studies conducted on oral health outcomes among individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This study followed the Participants, Exposure, Control and Outcomes (PECO) framework to formulate a focused research question. We conducted an extensive literature search across multiple databases, including PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Embase, in addition to clinical trial registers...

OBJECTIVE: Oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer (OOPC) is a devastating disease often caught in late stages. People who use tobacco are at higher risk of OOPC. Tobacco cessation discussions and OOPC screenings are important factors in decreasing the risk of OOPC or its late stage diagnosis. As research on sex differences has been increasing-from research on biomedical to psychological and sociological determinants-there is a potential difference, by sex, as to whom is more likely to have a tobacco cessation discussion and OOPC screening...

OBJECTIVES: To examine the extent to which the effect of income inequalities on tooth loss is attributable to differential exposure and susceptibility to heavy drinking in older Brazilian adults. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis using data from The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSI-Brazil 2015-2016), a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling people aged 50 years and over. Causal mediation analysis based on the counterfactual outcome framework decomposed the effect of income on tooth loss mediated by heavy drinking into four components (four-way decomposition): controlled direct effect (neither mediation nor interaction), reference interaction (interaction only), mediated interaction (both mediation and interaction) and pure indirect effect (mediation only)...

OBJECTIVE: Accurate assessment of child oral health is important for guiding economic evaluations and informing healthcare decision-making. Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS-4D) is a preference-based instrument that measures the oral health-related quality of life of young children. The aim of this study was to compare the utility scores of ECOHIS-4D and Child Health Utility Index (CHU-9D), against an oral health indicator to evaluate which utility score corresponds better with the oral health indicator...

OBJECTIVES: In celebration of the journal's 50th anniversary, the aim of the study was to review the whole collection of Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (CDOE) publications from 1973 to 2022 and provide a complete overview of the main publication characteristics. METHODS: The study used bibliometric techniques such as performance and science mapping analysis of 3428 articles extracted from the Scopus database. The data were analysed using the 'Bibliometrix' package in R...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify studies exploring oral and systemic conditions using Singapore data. METHODS: Studies were searched using the databases PubMed, Embase and Web of Science, with no publication date or language restrictions. Studies analysing Singaporean data were included in this review. RESULTS: Six domains were identified: pregnancy and gingivitis; tooth eruption, dental caries and early-life factors; Crohn's disease and oral microbiome; diabetes and periodontal diseases; number of teeth, chewing ability and cognitive status; and oral health and pneumonia...

OBJECTIVES: This study examined how Mexican and Central American immigrants' social support was associated with three selected dental outcomes among recent immigrants, prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Using baseline wave data from the 2017-2022 VidaSana study about the health and social networks of Mexican and Central American immigrants living in Indiana, this study utilized logistic and ordinal logistic regression to predict lifetime fluoride use, lifetime dental restoration and flossing frequency, across levels of social support and differences between Mexican and Central American immigrants...

OBJECTIVES: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate if children's oral health and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) were associated with school performance. Moreover, the study aimed to examine whether school environment factors influenced this association. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was based on a population-based sample of 998 12-year-old schoolchildren from 31 public schools in Quito, Ecuador. Trained and calibrated examiners conducted clinical exams for dental caries, dental trauma and malocclusion...

OBJECTIVES: Choices about which dental treatments to provide in a publicly funded system should be guided by the value that the general population place on those treatments. The aim of this study was to estimate United Kingdom (UK) general population willingness to pay (WTP) for dental check-ups, and to investigate what factors influence WTP. METHODS: WTP was elicited using a hypothetical question in an online survey. The sample consisted of 594 participants, nationally representative of the UK general population in terms of age and gender...

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between periodontal status, tooth loss and diabetes among community-dwelling adults aged 50 years and over in Ireland. METHODS: From respondents who attended a health assessment in Wave 3 of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), an opportunistic sample was selected for an oral health examination. The oral health examination criteria were used in previous Irish surveys and WHO recommendations...

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between dental clinical status and school performance and school attendance in the Kingdom of Bahrain (KoB) using a life-course framework. METHODS: This time-ordered cross-sectional study included 466 school children in Grade 2 (aged 7-8 years) and their parents in the KoB. Data were collected through parents' self-administered questionnaires, children's face-to-face interviews and dental clinical examinations. Data on children's school performance and school attendance were gathered from parents and school records...

OBJECTIVES: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an effective evidence-based model to provide early intervention and treatment to people with substance use disorders across diverse health settings. Yet, how SBIRT has been implemented within oral health settings and its associated outcomes has not been explored. This scoping review assessed how SBIRT has been implemented in oral health settings in the U.S. and discusses the implications for SBIRT integration in dentistry and oral health research, education and practice...

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence and trends in dental service use among Chilean older adults (60+ years) between 2006 and 2017; to assess the association between socioeconomic factors and dental service use and type (public/private) in 2017 and whether these differ by eligibility to a national dental programme (GES-60). METHODS: This study involved secondary data analysis of five nationally representative cross-sectional surveys between 2006 and 2017...

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review with meta-analysis was performed to assess whether motivational interviewing (MI) effectively prevents oral morbidities in adults. METHODS: Studies considered were randomized controlled trials, cluster-randomized controlled trials and community-based randomized trials assessing interventions based on MI or indicating that a counselling technique based on the principles developed by Miller and Rollnick was used. Controls were any type of oral health education or negative controls...

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine the associations between acculturation and dental floss, regular dental visits and unmet dental care needs among Asian Americans, as well as the moderating effects of these associations. METHODS: This study analysed national representative samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2018. A total of 2763 Asian Americans aged 20 and older were included in this analysis. The primary predictor, acculturation score, was determined by three questions: (i) language spoken at home (higher score for English), (ii) country of birth (higher score for United States) and (iii) length of time in the United States...

OBJECTIVES: Despite being almost entirely preventable, globally, dental caries is extremely prevalent. Moreover, dental caries will continue to present an even larger challenge for lower income countries, particularly those in the African context, as they transition to a more Western diet. Hence, epidemiological data providing insight into disease patterns and trends is critical to inform public health action. The purpose of this study was to examine dental caries clusters by caries detection threshold among 15-year-old adolescents in Sierra Leone, using data from the latest national survey, and to explore associated sociodemographic factors...