Prevention of early childhood caries in France, potential perspectives for interprofessional action: a scoping review.

Abstract

Early childhood caries (tooth decays) is a severe oral health condition that develops under the age of six. In many countries, oral health (including cavity treatment) is provided solely by dentists, who work independently. This organizational structure results in missed opportunities to prevent illnesses that occur throughout the child's health pathway, from birth and even before. The article aims to describe existing strategies for interprofessionality in pediatric oral health, as well as the obstacles and facilitators to their implementation. A scoping review was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Google Scholar between 2013 and 2025 to identify existing interprofessional collaboration strategies. Articles had to present a model of interprofessionality (oral health professional and other professionals), without being associated with a specific disease. Books, conferences or case reports were not included. The 10 articles included propose 3 major strategies such as the integration of dental hygienists into primary care. Others models focus on collaborative practice, with oral health training for healthcare professionals, recommendations or shared assessment tools. These collaborations sometimes go as far as the delegation of skills, if legislative support allow. Finally, new technologies can be used, such as telehealth and dental applications for assessing the risk of caries. The results were discussed in the light of D'Amour's interprofessional model of care, to identify the obstacles and facilitators of the different strategies with an operational aim (creation of a model applicable in France). Results highlight the need to set up a pediatric oral health network, that is sufficiently structured and focused on patients' interests to reduce social and territorial inequalities in oral health.