Oral Health Intervention for Caregivers of Children Presenting for Dental Surgery

Summary

Too many young children, particularly those living in poverty, present for dental surgery under anesthesia - an expensive, potentially dangerous, short-term fix that often results in recurring oral health disease and subsequent surgeries. Dr. Helen Lee, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Joanna Buscemi, a clinical health psychologist, recognized that to decrease need for surgeries, caregivers need resources and support to build their skills and knowledge around managing their child's oral health. After 5 years of relationship-building, publishing preliminary qualitative work, and building a team with the appropriate skills and knowledge, investigators developed a grant application to develop and test a parenting intervention for caregivers of preschool- aged children presenting for dental surgery.

With support from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the team created the PROTECT intervention with a focus on providing caregivers with parenting and behavioral tools to help improve tooth brushing and lower added sugar intake while simultaneously addressing social determinants of health that make behavior change more difficult. Community health workers will engage with caregivers for 6 months following the child's surgery to deliver PROTECT and support parents in behavioral change. A surgical event is a unique opportunity to change behaviors in systemically oppressed families that have manifested a need for behavior change. This intervention will meet caregivers needs at a critical time when risk disease recurrence intersects with a desire to change. This work has the potential to not only improve oral health of entire households but may also have a concomitant effect on parallel diseases, such as pediatric obesity.

Conditions

• Early Childhood Caries

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Behavioral Treatment

PROTECT (Preventing Recurrent Operations Targeting Early Childhood Caries Treatment) is a 6-month parenting program using evidence-based strategies to increase children's toothbrushing and reduce sugar intake. Sessions also address positive parenting, goal setting, stress management, and problem-solving. Community health workers (CHWs)-some bilingual in Spanish-will deliver 10 sessions (5 informational, 5 maintenance) to caregivers of children scheduled for dental surgery at UIC. Each 30-60-minute session focuses on applying skills to daily life and overcoming behavior-change challenges. CHWs can connect caregivers to social services or dental providers and refer concerns to a clinic social worker through a clinical psychologist. The program, developed from prior evidence and oral health/CHW curricula, covers oral health, nutrition, parenting, rewards, routines, problem-solving, monitoring, self-efficacy, and goal setting.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Illinois at Chicago

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Helen Lee, MD, MPH · University of Illinois at Chicago

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Max Age

7 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-30

Primary Completion

2027-09-30

Completion

2028-09-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations