Dental Decay
Conditions
Brief summary
Severe dental decay affects children physically, emotionally, socially and thereby impacts on their quality of life. Evidence from developed countries showed that children with severe dental decay weighed less than their peers and following dental treatment children's growth and quality of life improved. This suggests that treatment of severe dental decay may enhance growth and wellbeing. A study was carried out in Saudi to test that hypothesis.
Interventions
OTHERcomprehensive dental treatment
Early treatment children were scheduled for comprehensive dental treatment over a 2-month period (from May to June 2007). All test children had their last dental treatment visit within the last 2 weeks of the second treatment month. The follow-up survey was scheduled for each child to be approximately 6-month after their dental last visit. This step was very important to make sure that all children were examined at exactly the same interval between end of treatment and when re-examined at the follow-up examination.
OTHEROnly emergency dental treatment
Regular treatment did not receive any dental treatment in the period when the early children were treated unless they had toothache or dental infection. In that case they were treated for the pain but did not have comprehensive dental treatment
Sponsors
King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
72 Months to 95 Months
Inclusion criteria
Having dental caries with at least 2 teeth with pulpal involvement.
Exclusion criteria
1. Children with illness known to adversely affect growth. 2. Children who required urgent dental treatment. 3. Children on regular nutritional supplements. 4. Anaemic children with Hb levels lower than 11.0 g/dl
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Children's height and weight (HAZ,WAZ and BAZ) | 6 months | children's height and weight were measured pre and 6 months post dental treatment. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Quality of life (pain, sepsis, satisfaction and appetite) | 6 months | specific general and oral quality of life health measures were examined before and after dental treatment |
Outcome results
None listed