Impact of Health Centre Nurses on the Reduction of Early Childhood Cariesin Lima, Peru

Background: The prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) among 36-47 months-old children in Lima, Peru, is 65.5%. Dentists have no easy access to see infants but nurses do. If nurses will be trained on oral health behaviours and early recognition of signs of ECC in infants, they could assist parents in keeping infant teeth healthy, during their regular well-child visits, using an oral health advisory and control cards and by referring infants to the health centre dentist earlier.
Aims: The primary aim of the study is to reduce the prevalence of ECC. Nurses will be trained in educating mothers on oral health behaviour and in detecting signs of ECC in infants. They will assist parents in keeping infant teeth healthy with assistance of an oral health advisory card during regular well-child controls and referring infants with ECC risk to the health centre dentist.
Study Design: The study is a three-arm randomized clinical trial. (A) Active intervention group: nurses will receive training in oral health education and in detecting carious lesions, supported by validated oral health advisory and control cards. (B) Passive intervention group: nurses will receive the oral health advisory and control cards together with written instructions, while nurses in the (C) control group will be lectured once on good oral health behaviours. In the three groups, knowledge of nurses will be evaluated, using a validated questionnaire, pre- and post-training. The pattern of referrals and treatments will be obtained from records available in the office of the health centre dentist. The ECC status among three year olds will be assessed at baseline and after three years, as will the quality of life of the infants.
Place and Duration of the Study: The study will be carried out in three districts in Lima, Peru between September 2014 and September 2017.