Latvian Parents’ Concerns About Minimally Invasive Early Childhood Caries Treatment

Objectives: Minimally invasive (MI) methods to manage caries can reduce complications; however, there are barriers to their implementation. The study aims to describe parents’ concerns about non-invasive and minimally invasive caries management for children in Latvia.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the RSU Institute of Stomatology, Ltd. for parents whose children had previously undergone MIdental procedures and a control group who had not. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. First and the second cycle codings were used, e.g., initial and focused coding to generate the main categories.
Results: The initial and focused coding of 19 interviews resulted in the development of the final three categories of parental concerns and two categories of factors that influence parental concerns. The first category, "Doubts about effectiveness", revealed concerns about long-term outcomes. The second category, "Fear about child’s comfort", showed worries about pain or inflammation during and after the procedure. The third category, "Aesthetics", reflected on the visual appearance of a child’s teeth after silver diamine fluoride, the Hall Technique and non-restorative caries control. Categories around factors influencing parental concerns were “Previous Experience”, which could lead to more or fewer concerns about MI treatment, and “Availability” including access to information and procedure.
Conclusions: Parents in Latvia expressed concerns regarding the effectiveness, esthetics and child comfort of MI methods for caries treatment. They lacked information and appeared to find it challenging to trust procedures that are easy, quick to carry out and do not involve traditional drilling.