February 19th, 2011, posted by Dental Health Magazine staff
TORONTO — An investigation using four interventions concurrently including dental treatment, fluoride applications, anticipatory guidance and motivational interviewing specifically designed for First Nations pregnant women will commence this spring in several communities across Ontario and Manitoba.
The Canadian arm of this project is funded at almost $1.2 million dollars by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Its goal is to reduce the marked early childhood caries disparities that exist between First
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Nations and non-First Nations children in Canada. Canadian results are to be compared with those from the Australian and New Zealand teams.
Principal investigator, Dr. Herenia Lawrence from the University of Toronto says, “Early childhood caries is a significant health problem confronting Indigenous communities in all three countries. We hope that by working in partnership with Aboriginal communities here in Canada we can create an intervention that will reduce the dental treatment needs of young children and motivate mothers to subscribe to better preventative oral health practices.
Our long-term goal is to create a culturally appropriate intervention that reduces dental disease burden and health inequalities among pre-school Indigenous children in the participating countries and that can be readily applied to other populations with high levels of early childhood caries.”
Four other Canadian Universities will join the University of Toronto for this investigation including the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (Laurentian University), the University of Manitoba, the University College of the North, and the University of Waterloo.
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The five-year study is called “Reducing disease burden and health inequalities arising from chronic dental disease among Indigenous children: an early childhood caries intervention.”
Co-investigator, Dr. Sabrina Peressini also from the University of Toronto says, “A caregiver’s positive perceptions surrounding the importance of the primary dentition are vital to making dentally healthy infant rearing choices.
This intervention is important because it will help to promote positive messages and provide dental information during pregnancy, a time when caring for a child’s teeth is not usually considered. Caregivers will therefore have a greater opportunity to develop dentally healthy choices once their child is born.”
By Dr. Sabrina Peressini
Source: media.utoronto.ca
