This article was originally published in the April 2022 edition of the ADA’s News Bulletin
Each year, the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future (ACFF) proudly supplies funding grants for projects aimed at making a positive impact on community dental caries experience. Recipients of these grants, supported by Colgate-Palmolive, can receive funding ranging from $2,000 to $20,000. This year, three projects have been chosen from 12 excellent projects that were submitted for the 2022 ACFF Grants program.
PROJECT
“Primary carers’ knowledge and practices of infant oral health promotion”
RECIPIENTS
Dr Lesley Andrew, Dr Ruth Wallace, Dr Mohamed Estai
Early childhood caries disproportionately affects vulnerable paediatric groups and remains a leading cause of preventable hospital admissions for Western Australian (WA) preschool children. The study aligns with the WA State Oral Health Plan aim to redress this through universal and targeted health promotion initiatives with primary caregivers. These initiatives require contemporary evidence of primary caregiver oral health literacy and influential sociological determinants. The proposed research will develop this evidence through a series of focus groups. Findings will inform the development of an oral health app and oral health programs for health professionals who work with preschool children and primary caregivers.
OBJECTIVES
– Understand the child oral health knowledge and behaviours of primary caregivers of children aged 0-5 years regarding nutrition, feeding, dental hygiene and dentist engagement;
– Identify factors contributing to oral health literacy among WA primary caregivers, including influential social determinants;
– Identify incentives or strategies that can improve oral health knowledge and practices among WA primary caregivers; and
– Assess primary caregiver’s Child Dental Benefit Schedule (CDBS) knowledge.
PROJECT
“Normalising oral health in alcohol and other drug recovery services (NormAD)”
RECIPIENTS
Ms Meaghan Quinn and A/Prof. Phyllis Lau
In Australia, alcohol and other drug (AOD) recovery services offer multidisciplinary care to people who are using, abstaining or recovering from AOD. Despite the devastating effect of AOD on teeth and gums, oral health care is not integrated in these recovery services. Poor oral health directly impacts a user’s general health, confidence, social interactions and ultimately their recovery journey. Bespoke interventions to improve oral health outcomes are needed. The research team has developed an intervention to normalise oral health as part of AOD recovery and proposes to pilot it at First Step, an addiction treatment centre in St Kilda, Victoria.
OBJECTIVES
– To pilot and explore the acceptability and feasibility of an oral health intervention at First Step;
– To assess the intervention’s impact on clients’ oral health outcomes, including:
– oral health literacy of clients and service providers;
– the impact and processes of the intervention;
– the factors influencing the intervention’s implementation;
– the engagement and experience of those involved with the intervention;
– referrals of oral health assessments by service providers; and
– uptake of oral health assessments by clients and the outcomes.
PROJECT
“Early Childhood Caries: from phenotype to prevention”
RECIPIENTS
Dr Mihiri Silva and A/Prof. Michael Smith
Dental caries is a common and significant childhood disease. In operation since 2013, Wide Smiles is a unique community oral health promotion initiative delivered by Barwon Health Oral Health Services that provides screening and fluoride varnish application through kindergartens and schools (Prep-Grade 1) in regional and rural towns in the Barwon area. This funding applications seeks to improve data management and overall program coordination and the evaluation of the program by applying emerging health informatics approaches to evaluate the program. Finding from this evaluation will enable the development of effective approaches to community fluoride varnish programs.
OBJECTIVES
– To describe cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of dental caries in children and evaluate the role of social factors (eg social disadvantage, rural location) in influencing disease pattern, lesion initiation, progression and arrest; and
– To quantify the effect of fluoride varnish application on dental caries initiation, progression and arrest for children with different risk profiles and disease patterns.
