A Telephone-based Case-management Intervention for Caries Prevention in Children With Severe Early Childhood Caries

November 23, 2022 updated by: Göran Dahllöf, Karolinska Institutet

Despite improvements in oral health among children, children living in areas characterized by low socio-economic status still have a significant disease burden with regard to dental caries. Special efforts to prevent disease development in this group of children have been unsuccessful. Small children with extensive treatment needs often have limited abilities to cooperate and to provide quality dental care in this patient group, general aneaethesia (GA) may often be the treatment modality of choice. Preschool children treated under general anesthesia have significantly higher caries prevalence (deft and defs), apical parodontitis and infection due to pulpal necrosis. They also have significantly more emergency visits and previous use of treatment under sedation.

This study aim to test the hypothesis, that a telephone based case management intervention for children with severe early childhood caries can prevent further caries development in preschool children who are treated under general anesthesia for severe early childhood caries.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Consecutive children (n=130) who are referred to the departments of pediatric dentistry at Eastman Dental Institute, Public Dental Service and Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, who fulfill inclusion criteria are invited to participate in the study. This is done during the visits preceding the anesthetic evaluation of the patient. Parents will be given written information about the study. During the last visit preceding the GA, a contact is established between dental health coach and family. During this visit the aim of the project is explained and an agreement is signed and informed consent is obtained from the parents only (the parents are the target for this intervention, it is they who perform the preventive oral health measures and supports the child). During this interview, the parents will also answer a structured interview measuring level of self-efficacy and well as their thoughts on dental health care as well as why the situation has occurred. After the initial interview patients are assigned to either intervention group (dental health coach group) or to a control group.

The dental healthcoach will keep in close contact with the intervention group, and by telephone based support provide information, support parental self-efficacy, motivate the family to keep preventive measures that have been individually agreed on, motivate parents to keep preventive appointments and to provide tools for caries prevention.

A follow-up visit is scheduled after 1 year. Parents who decline participation in the program will receive treatment as usual and will be followed for 1 year.

Patients in the control group will receive treatment as usual. This means recall visits to the dental clinic within 3 months after the procedure, reinforcing the individually tailored preventive program. Recall visits after that are scheduled based on treatment needs. A follow-up visit is scheduled after 1 year.

Caries will be diagnosed at baseline ( during GA) and progression will be monitored according to ICDAS after 12 and 24 months. Plaque and gingivitis will be registered.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

151

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Huddinge
      • Stockholm, Huddinge, Sweden, 141 04
        • Karolinska Institutet

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

No older than 6 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pre-school children < 6 years of age
  • Severe childhood caries
  • treated under general anesthesia in Stockholm County Council during a one year period.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Medically compromised children
  • Children with learning disabilities

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Dental health coaches
Telephone-based case-management intervention. Contact with families every 2 weeks during one year. Including motivational interviewing, support for dental preventive measures at home, answer questions, care coordination) + conventional protocol (Fluoride prevention program)
Regular Telephone support delivered by Health coaches
No Intervention: Control group
Conventional protocol (Fluoride prevention program) and follow-up as usual

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from baseline in New carious lesion (decayed surfaces and decayed teeth) at 12 and 24 months
Time Frame: 12 months, 24 months
decayed surfaces (dmfs) and decayed teeth (dmft)
12 months, 24 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Dental attendance
Time Frame: 12 months
number of visits to dental health care during the observation period, number of unscheduled appointments, number of missed and cancelled appointments
12 months
oral health related quality of life
Time Frame: 12 months
Validated scale OHRQoL, subscales FIS and P-CPQ will be used
12 months
Dental Anxiety among parents
Time Frame: 12 months
Dental Anxiety Scale, DAS
12 months
Parental Stress
Time Frame: 12 months
The Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire - SPSQ
12 months
Dental beliefs among parents
Time Frame: 12 months
Swedish version of the revised Dental Beliefs Survey (DBS-R)
12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Dental health coaches' experiences of their role
Time Frame: 18 months
Questioners and focus groups will be used to understand the experience of the health coach in order to refine the intervention in future projects
18 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Göran Dahllöf, Professor, Karolinska Institutet

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 24, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 26, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

July 1, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 25, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 23, 2022

Last Verified

November 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Dnr 1-314/2013 SOF, KI

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Data collected only for this study

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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