Comparing Health Promotion Programs in Public Dental Service of Vantaa, Finland: A Clinical Trial in 6–36-Month-Old Children

Objective. The study assessed whether the new family-based programs in health promotion or the training of dental professionals had an impact on the colonization of mutans streptococci (MS) in young children. Material and Methods. The participants were children born in 2008 and inhabitants of Vantaa aged 24–36 months. The families with first-born children were invited to a questionnaire study. Vantaa was categorized into three matching areas, which were randomly assigned to different programs. New counseling methods were trained. The routine program used earlier served as the control group. The children born in 2006 served as a historic control. The outcome measure was the presence of MS. Statistical method was logistic regression. Results. Colonization of MS was found only in few children born in 2006 or 2008; 15% and 11%, respectively. Within the 2008 birth cohort, the addition of parental counseling did not improve the routine program. Instead, the father’s advanced level of education ( ) and the child’s reported the use of xylitol at least three times a day ( ) associated with negative MS scores. Conclusions. The routine program and training of the professionals seem to reduce the proportion of children with MS more than adding parental self-care to oral health programs. 1. Introduction A three-year health promotion project was started in the Vantaa PDS in 2006. The main reason for the project was that the oral health of children and adolescents had been deteriorating. For prevention of early childhood caries, the oral health promotion was started earlier than before by giving health advice to expecting parents. In addition, the training of modern methods in counseling was targeted at the professionals involved in children’s oral health care. The main aim of the project was to delay the transmission of mutans streptococci (MS) from parent to child. The present study was initially started in order to evaluate the achievements of the project. Oral health promotion in early childhood includes preventive work aimed at expecting families, babies, and young children. According to results from recent studies, this also seems to be effective and justified [1–3]. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network recommends that programs of oral health promotion should be available to parents during pregnancy to reduce early childhood caries, and that the counseling for parents and their preschool children should start before the age of three [4]. The Finnish current care guideline for caries control emphasizes early childhood health promotion and acquisition