Changes in Oral Health - related Behavior of Infants following a Preventive Program of Continuing Education Directed to their Parents

Objective: To evaluate changes in oral health-related behavior of infants following preventive program of continuing education directed to their parents. Material and Methods: We analyzed 53 dental files of infants aged up to 36 months, who participated in the Prevention and Education Program of the Infants Clinic, School of Dentistry of Bauru (USP), and attended at least 2 visits with a maximum of 4 missing appointments. Initially an educational lecture was conducted, pointing issues related to diet and oral hygiene. At the following visit, the professional filled in a form with questions about diet and hygiene performed at home. The following information was extracted from dental files: reason of the first visit, age, number of teeth, number of visits, missing appointments, and dietary and oral hygiene risk factors. The data were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics comparing the information obtained from the first visit to that of the last one. Results: The reason for the first visit was dental caries prevention (88.68%) followed by dental trauma (7.55%), and needed of curative treatment (3.77%). The mean age of the sample was 14.85 months, the tooth number mean was 12.64 at first visit, the mean number of visits was 7 and the mean missing appointments was 0.83. The percentage of infants with inadequate diet and hygiene habits was 88.68% and 62.26%, and only 12.762% and 57.57% of these have changed their habits, respectively. Conclusion: After the preventive program of continuing education, the dietary habits showed were more difficult to change in relation to hygiene ones.