Improving Family's Adherence to Dental Care After DGA (HECC-CAN-study)

Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dental Caries; Child Neglect

Treatments: Other: Social Paediatric Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04898465

HUS/180/220

Details and patient eligibility

About

Early childhood caries (ECC) is a common disease. Its prevalence is highest in poor, socially disadvantaged, and minority groups. Dental treatment under General Anaesthesia (DGA) is common, especially among the youngest patients. Parental adherence to child's post-DGA dental treatment is varying. Non-attendance to preventive care appointments and dental check-ups after the DGA is also common. The primary aim of this study is to explore if a multi-professional (paediatrician and social worker) intervention after the child's DGA can increase the adherence to post-DGA dental care. The secondary aim is to compare its possible influence on children's oral health 18 months after the DGA. Our hypothesis is that multi-professional counselling and support after the DGA will lead to better adherence to the scheduled preventive dental programme and better oral health for these children in the long run.

Full description

In an earlier Finnish study 26% of the children did not attend to their first scheduled appointment after the DGA and during a four years follow-up period 63% of the patients had one or more no-shows.

Based on the assumption that reducing the amount of no-shows to half of the reported earlier (60% vs. 30%) is a clinically relevant result, we need 42 patients for both groups (alpha 0.05, beta 0.2, power 0.8).

Enrollment: 89 patients

Sex: All

Ages: Under 5 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• reason for DGA is dental caries
• place of birth is Finland
• primary dentition

Exclusion criteria

• chronic disease which needs treatment in tertiary hospital

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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89 participants in 2 patient groups

Social Paediatric Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Multiprofessional social paediatric meeting with the family.

Treatment:

Other: Social Paediatric Intervention

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Normal post-DGA dental programme.