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Evaluation of Pacific Islands Early Childhood Caries Prevention Project: Republic of the Marshall Islands

2009; Wiley; Volume: 69; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1752-7325.2009.00117.x

1752-7325

Peter Milgrom, Ohnmar Tut,

Oral microbiology and periodontitis research

This communication reports an outcomes evaluation of the Pacific Islands Early Childhood Caries Prevention Project.The evaluation includes children in three conditions: a) topical fluoride varnish three times per school year; b) varnish plus twice-per-day toothbrushing; and c) intervention 2 plus three-times-per-day xylitol containing gummy bear snacks at school and home visits to encourage parental involvement. For this evaluation, groups 2 and 3 have been combined.One year after project implementation, mean decayed, extracted, or filled primary teeth was 10.3 [standard deviation (SD)= 4.3] teeth for group 1, and 8.2 (SD = 4.0) teeth for the combination of groups 2 and 3 (P < 0.05). Twenty-four percent of group 1 had cavitated lesions in any permanent molar versus 12.8 percent in groups 2 and 3 combined (P > 0.05).Evaluation confirms the outcome of a program including both in-school twice-daily toothbrushing with fluoridated toothpaste and frequent applications of fluoride varnish.