Determining the Prevalence and Risk factors for Early Childhood Caries in a Community Dental Health Clinic

Author(s): Schroth, R.J., Cheba, V.
Journal: Pediatric Dentistry
Volume (number): 29
Month, Year: 2007
Major topic: Prevalence of ECC among patients at a community dental clinic (Mount Carmel Dental Clinic) in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Minor topics: Summarize trends among those patients
Type of Article: Chart Review / Retrospective
Main Purpose:
1) Determine prevalence of ECC among young children accessing dental services at a community dental clinic
2) Identify factors associated with ECC
3) Determine % of patients who received treatment for ECC in the clinic and the number referred to a specialist
Overview of method of research:
Review of 834 charts
Study population comprised of children younger then 72 months who attended the clinic between 1991 and 2004
Data collection form used contained the following:
1) household and family characteristics
2) dental visitation status
3) childhood issues
4) demographics
10% of all charts reviewed again to check for reliability of variables collected
Findings:
• 71% of patients had ECC
• 53% of the subjects were male
• 70% of patients belonged to families consisting of 4 or more persons, 80% of children had at least 1 other sibling
• Average family income $1,481 Canadian dollars
• Average age of first dental visit was 50 months (only 5 children seen by dentist around 1 year)
• 19% were referred to another provider
Conclusions

1) Majority of preschool children attending Mount Carmel Clinic had ECC
2) Factors significantly associated with ECC on logistic regression analysis include: sex of child, low monthly household income, residing with both parents, history of failed dental visits, first dental visit at no earlier then 24 months of age
3) Efforts should me made to follow current recommendations for first dental visit by 12 months of age
Assessment of article
Good article.
Limitations include:
• Missing data on family income, total family size, medical conditions, parental employment status
• Difficulty deciphering providers progress notes; differing chart documentation habits of the providers; format of charts changed during the period under review
• Charting errors
• Difficulty in establishing cause and effect relationship