DENTISTS RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE SEALANT PREVALENCE IN FLORIDA'S CHILDREN

Atrium

Objective. To examine dentists' recommendations to increase sealant prevalence in Florida's children. Background. Dental caries, the most common childhood disease, when left untreated can lead to serious health consequences. Despite evidence on its effectiveness to reduce carious lesions, dental sealants are the most underutilized preventive measure. Less than 15% of Floridian children received any type of preventative dental services in 2010, including dental sealants. Methods. For this cross-sectional study, a 25-item self-administered pretested survey was distributed to the general and pediatric dentists attending the 2013 Florida National Dental Convention (FNDC). SAS statistical software was used to conduct descriptive statistics. Results. 163 dentists completed the survey. The most common recommendation to increase sealant prevalence was parental education campaigns (80%), followed by television and newspaper advertisements (42%), enhanced reimbursement for Medicaid patients (38%), school-based sealant programs (35%), clear guidelines for sealant placement (26%), formal training for dental assistants (26%), more research on sealant effectiveness (25%), formal training in sealant application for themselves (20%), and more trained dental hygienists (16%). Conclusion. Majority of the surveyed dentists believed educating parents through campaigns and advertisements will increase sealant prevalence in Florida. Despite existing evidence on sealant effectiveness and evidence based clinical guidelines for sealant placement; at least one fourth of responding dentists still indicated a need for the same. Grants. This study was funded by Nova Southeastern University Health Professions Division Research Grant.