IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i10p1316-d1491523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Is Caries Prevention in Children So Difficult? A Narrative Opinion

Author

Listed:
  • Svante Twetman

    (Department of Odontology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Nørre Allé 20, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark)

Abstract

Caries is among the most common non-communicable diseases worldwide, yet it is commonly described as preventable. Caries prevention is, however, difficult and complex, since the disease has strong social, parental, behavioral, political, medical/genetic, and psychological elements, and the payment models are targeted at traditional conservative care. The aim of this paper is to discuss some key issues that make caries prevention in children be perceived as “difficult”: i) the communication gap between researchers and clinicians, creating unrealistic expectations of intervention efficacy; ii) the skewed distribution of caries and the problem of reaching children with the highest need; iii) limited access to care, which is a threat to oral health, in particular in low-socioeconomic-status, underserviced, and remote communities; and iv) the need to adopt behavior change models to affect the modifiable risk factors that are shared with other non-communicable diseases. Dentists cannot simply rely on fluoride exposure; proper education and training in caries risk assessment, behavior change models targeted at oral hygiene and sugar intake, and collaboration with primary healthcare and local school authorities are avenues that aid in caries prevention and reduce the uneven burden of the disease. Online education and mobile apps may help to promote oral health in areas with shortages of dental work force.

Suggested Citation

  • Svante Twetman, 2024. "Why Is Caries Prevention in Children So Difficult? A Narrative Opinion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(10), pages 1-9, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:10:p:1316-:d:1491523
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/10/1316/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/10/1316/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco Ramos-Gomez & Stephanie Parkinson & Victor Garcia de Jesus & Jose A. Rios & Janni J. Kinsler, 2024. "Pediatric Oral Health Online Education for Rural and Migrant Head Start Programs in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(5), pages 1-12, April.
    2. Frank Gabel & Olivier Kalmus & Kasper Rosing & Anna‐Lena Trescher & Stefan Listl, 2020. "Implementation of altered provider incentives for a more individual‐risk‐based assignment of dental recall intervals: evidence from a health systems reform in Denmark," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 475-488, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Klumpp & Dominic Loske & Silvio Bicciato, 2022. "COVID-19 health policy evaluation: integrating health and economic perspectives with a data envelopment analysis approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(8), pages 1263-1285, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:10:p:1316-:d:1491523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.