Browsing by Subject "Dentistry"
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Item Open Access An Assessment of Urbanization as it Relates to Caries Prevalence and its Determinants in Children in Copan, Honduras(2012) Damgaard, Michael BoydObjective: To determine if a significant association exists between urbanization and dental caries prevalence, and whether or not similar relationships occur between community type and principal determinants of youth oral health in children ages 2 to 12 in the region of Copan, Honduras.
Methods: The investigator conducted a cross-sectional two-part interview with each participant. First, a survey was administered to the parent to collect information surrounding dental caries determinants. Second, the investigator performed a brief examination of child dentition to determine the number of existing caries. Data was collected from two separate patient populations: an urban sample of children within Copan Ruinas, and an indigenous sample from 15 surrounding rural villages.
Results: Samples consisted of 203 individuals from the urban population and 221 from the rural. While there was no visible association between caries prevalence and urbanization, teeth brushing, parent education, and sugar intake demonstrated highly significant correlations (P<0.01). Mean DMFT Score for the combined samples was 5.15.
Conclusion: There is a clear need for dental interventions both in urban and rural communities in Copan, Honduras. Sugar consumption is likely contributing to increased caries prevalence in the urban community. Other factors such as water fluoridation could be influencing DMFT scores in Copan's more rural villages.
Item Open Access Facilitators and Barriers to the Advancement of Oral Health on the Global Health Agenda: A Qualitative Study with Key Oral Health Stakeholders(2022) Byott, Yasmin RauzDental caries accounts for the primary burden of disease globally,1 a burden which falls heavily on those least able to access treatment.2 Despite this burden, oral health remains neglected on the global agenda. Thus, we sought to conduct a qualitative study to determine why oral health occupies the position it does on the global agenda as well as what factors might promote or prevent its ascent. Virtual interviews were conducted with key oral health stakeholders identified by the Lancet Commission on Oral Health and coded to reveal underlying themes. Our study found several reasons for the neglect of oral health by global health policymakers. These include the separation of oral health care from comprehensive health care; the lack of research and data on oral health; competing interests from multinational food companies that promote and sell sugary foods and beverages; and the dental profession’s propensity for treatment over prevention. Integration of oral health into UHC schemes, expanded research and data collection, sugar taxation, and task-shifting were identified as potential avenues to facilitate oral health’s prioritization on the global agenda.
Item Open Access Sugar Consumption and Prevalence of Dental Decay Among Children 12-Years of Age and Younger in Rural Honduras(2011) Wheeler, KendraObjectives: To determine the prevalence of dental caries among children 6-months to 12-years-old in rural Honduras, and to explore the hypothesis that sugar consumption is positively correlated with dental decay among children 6-months to 12-years old in rural Honduras.
Methods: An interviewer implemented a cross-sectional survey of dental health determinants using convenience sampling. The same interviewer then examined the dentition of survey participants for dental decay according to the dental caries criteria recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Results: The study included a sample of 532 children from 8 rural communities. Seventy percent of children surveyed had decay of their primary dentition. The average dmft score in this population was 3.52 (SD=3.57). A logistic regression model yielded that children who eat more than 2.5 pieces of candy per day have at least twice the odds of dental decay compared to children who eat less candy.
Conclusion: These results establish that caries burden in primary dentition in these communities is higher than the WHO goal, and support the hypothesis that increased sugar consumption correlates positively to increased burden of decay.