Motivation and oral health preventive behavior in a pediatric dental assistance program for the early childhood

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to identify the feeding routines of children and the compliance of mothers with the recommendations on oral health. Two hundred dental records of patients (with ages between 1 and 20 months) from the Research and Dental Treatment Center for Special Patients (Cepae/FOP/UNICAMP) were examined in order to establish the kind of feeding, the products that were added to the milk and the presence of sucrose in these products. In addition, the prevalence of caries was determined both when the children were introduced in the program and after 1 year. From the 200 dental records examined, it was observed that 85% of the children were bottle-fed and, out of these, 81.8% received milk associated with some product which contained sucrose. Considering the 200 children studied, 8% began the program with caries as shown in their first dental examination. The compliance of the mothers with the dietary recommendations during the program was obtained in 27% of the cases. A cognitive model for change of behavior is proposed to understand the behavior of mothers related with the oral health of their children, while taking part in a preventive dental program. Guidance and training are necessary but not sufficient to change the behavior of mothers.