The impact of dental caries on children and young people: what they have to say?. Issue 5 (8th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gilchrist, Fiona; Marshman, Zoe; Deery, Chris; Rodd, Helen D.
• Is Part Of: International journal of paediatric dentistry. Volume 25:Issue 5(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 338
• Publication Date: 2015-07-08
• Subjects: Pedodontics -- Periodicals; 617.645
• DOI: 10.1111/ipd.12186
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0960-7439

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="ipd12186-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="ipd12186-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Dental caries affects 60–90% of children across the world and is associated with a variety of negative impacts. Despite its ubiquity, there has been surprisingly little exploration of these impacts from the child's perspective.</p> </sec> <sec id="ipd12186-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Aim</title> <p>The aim was to allow children to describe the impact of dental caries on their daily lives and to describe the terminology they used.</p> </sec> <sec id="ipd12186-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Design</title> <p>Children, aged 5–15 years, with caries experience were purposively sampled from primary and secondary care dental clinics. Focus groups (<italic>n</italic> = 5) and in‐depth interviews (<italic>n</italic> = 16) were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis took a narrative approach, and themes were derived from the data using framework analysis.</p> </sec> <sec id="ipd12186-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Pain was the main theme to emerge. Within this, three subthemes were identified: impacts related to pain, strategies adopted to reduce pain, and emotional aspects resulting from pain. A second theme was also identified relating to the aesthetic aspects of caries.</p> </sec> <sec id="ipd12186-sec-0005" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusion</title> <p>Children as young as 5 years of age were able to competently discuss their experiences of dental caries. Participants reported a number of impacts affecting various aspects of their lives. These will be incorporated into the future development of a caries‐specific measure of oral health‐related quality of life.</p> </sec> </abstract>