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Abstract

The UBC Children’s Dental Program (CDP) has provided free basic dental treatment for high caries risk children, from marginalized populations, since the mid-1970s. Children are referred to the program by Health Authority Staff in metro Vancouver. Treatment is provided by senior dental students under the supervision of UBC Pediatric Dentistry instructors. However, the students have limited time to provide health education to the accompanying caregivers. Therefore, this project developed a ʺwaiting-room basedʺ dental health education program (DHEP) to engage the caregivers of participating children. Our main objectives were to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the DHEP and its short term effectiveness in changing parental dental health related behaviours. A situational analysis using structured interviews was performed with the caregivers and other stakeholders of the CDP: Health Authority Staff, UBC Pediatric Dentistry instructors and participating dental students. After the assessment of caregivers’ dental knowledge, dental behaviours, attitudes as well as preferences about a dental educational program, the DHEP was developed and implemented in the waiting rooms at UBC’s two children’s dental clinics. Follow-up phone calls with the caregivers assessed their short term self-reports of changes in dental health related behaviours. Comparisons before and after being exposed to our DHEP were made using Chi-square tests; significance was set at P