Oral Health Promotion in Infants through Dental Pass Prof. Wen-Sheng Rong

1. Oral Health Promotion in Infants through Dental Pass Prof. Wen-Sheng Rong This project is a pilot running in Dailan, Liaonoing Province, China, aiming to improve the oral health of young children and their mothers through integrating free oral health check-ups, treatment and education programmes into the existing maternal and infant healthcare system. The project aims to reduce the incidence of caries among children by distributing free toothpaste and toothbrushes to mothers, teaching mothers the importance of good oral health habits for themselves and their children, offering dental passes and oral health information leaflets to new mothers, demonstrating proper toothbrushing technique for mothers, and instructing mothers to clean the new erupted teeth of their children. The project targets young mothers and their infants, from 3 to 6 months, volunteering to participate in the programme. Mothers receive a free dental check up in community hospitals, with dentists and physicians, thanks to a “Dental Pass” distributed by the project stakeholders (NDAs dentists and representatives). Upon this appointment, mothers are given instructions and education on oral health and teeth cleaning method for infants. A clinical examination, including the number of erupted teeth of children and tooth status of the children, was then conducted by trained dentists at different intervals to monitor whether the programme improves oral health. A face-to-face interview was conducted by a trained interviewer to collection oral health care information of new mothers. The baseline data (T0) showed that the new mothers had limited oral health knowledge, and the proportion of using fluoride toothpaste was lower. Oral health promotion should be implemented among the new mothers. We are planning to collect a second set of data (T1), by examining the same group of mothers and children, by the end of 2012. The success of the project relied on the training and calibration of the oral health examiners. This phase was completed before August 2011. Then, the recruitment of volunteering mothers and children pairs started in August 2011. Totally, 710 pairs of mother-child were recruited. 62.4% of mothers brushed their teeth twice a day and 4.6% of them brushed their teeth less than once a day. The comparison of both data sets is willing to demonstrate whether oral health education has an impact on oral health improvement. Only 19.2% of mothers knew that fluoride toothpaste was helpful to their teeth, and 33.7% of them were using fluoride toothpastes.