Efficacy of oral health promotion in primary care practice during early childhood: creating positive changes in parent's oral health beliefs and behaviors.

Nurse practitioners frequently provide care to children suffering from poor oral health. Creative approaches to impacting dental disease are needed due to the current lack of traditional dental providers. This study investigated the effects of oral health promotion provided by primary care providers on parental oral health beliefs and behaviors. Participants receiving standard oral care during two well child visits and two additional enhanced oral health visits (n=44) were compared to participants receiving standard oral care during two well child visits alone (n=40). Results revealed changes in parent's perception of the importance of oral care for their children's primary teeth compared to general healthcare needs (p<0.05), response to brushing their children's teeth (p<0.0001), confidence in brushing their teeth (p<0.05) and frequency of brushing (p<0.0001) in both groups. This small but important study shows that oral health programs in primary care can produce changes that can improve oral health outcomes. Parents and children exposed to oral health programs during their frequent well child care visits in the first years of life may help decrease the rate of early childhood caries and improve their quality of life.