Haitian orphan population and protective factors against caries

Authors

  • Madelyn Rea

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/d3000.2015.40

Keywords:

Dental Caries, Enamel Discoloration, Dental Trauma

Abstract

Objective In Haiti, families were torn apart and children were left orphans after the 2010 earthquake. In the aftermath of this natural disaster many children were relocated to orphanages across the country and adopted internationally. Years later these children find themselves catching up in growth physically, mentally and emotionally after an extremely traumatic event during a crucial time in their health development. Another important marker of development is the primary dentition and the presence of caries.  We report estimates of early childhood caries (ECC) frequency, risk factors and quality of health among Haitian children. Methods Medical and dental professionals conducted a descriptive cross sectional study through the Pittsburgh Kids Foundation and their partnership with IDADEE children’s home, EBAC orphanage and New Vision Children’s home. Vital signs were taken and recorded to create a health/growth history for each child. Brief dental screenings were conducted and topical fluoride treatments were administered. Risk factors and quality of health information was obtained from discussions with the caregivers present. The children and caregivers were given oral hygiene education and supplies (i.e. toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss).  Results Physical exams and dental screenings were conducted on the 40 children ages 3-10 years of age living in the IDADEE children’s home. Two children had cavitated teeth. Eight children had teeth that were stained. Four children had evidence of dental trauma. 26 out of the 40 children had otherwise healthy dentition. Conclusion The IDADEE children’s home and New Vision Children’s home have hopes to expand their capacity with new construction scheduled to be finished in 2016. As more children enter these homes action is needed to educate caregivers on ways to identify high-risk children to prevent ECC and ways they can be treated before irreversible damage is done to the developing permanent dentition.

References

McLean HS, Price DT. Failure to thrive. In: Kliegman RM, Stanton BF, St. Geme JW III, et al., eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 19th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Saunders; 2011:chap 38.

Growth Charts - Homepage. Cdcgov. 2016. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts. Accessed March 14, 2016.

Pittsburgh Kids Foundation - HAITI. Pittsburghkidsfounda-tionorg. 2016. Available at: http://www.pittsburghkidsfoundation.org/haiti/. Accessed March 14, 2016.

Nowak AJ, Casamassimo PS. The Handbook of Pediatric Dentistry. American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, 2011

Dean J, McDonald R, Avery D. Mcdonald And Avery's Dentistry For The Child And Adolescent. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier; 2016.

Dental caries in pre-school chil-dren: associations with social class, toothbrushing habit and consumption of sugars and sugar-containing foods. Further analysis of data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey of children aged 1.5-4.5 years. Gibson S, William S. Caries Res. 1999;33(2):101-13. PMID: 9892777

An investigation into the use of restriction endonuclease analysis for the study of transmission of mutans streptococci. Kulkarni GV, Chan KH, Sandham HJ. J Dent Res. 1989;68(7):1155–61. PMID: 2632600

Early childhood caries is associ-ated with genetic variants in enamel formation and immune response genes. Abbasoğlu Z, Tanboğa İ, Küchler EC, Deeley K, Weber M, Kaspar C, Korachi M, Vieira AR. Caries Res. 2015;49(1):70-7. PMID: 25531160

Vieira, Alexandre R (January 2016) Genetic Influences on Den-tal Caries. In: eLS. Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester. DOI:10.1002/9780470015802.a0024258

Downloads

Published

2016-04-08

Issue

Section

Infancy & Adolescence