Literature review:  Risk Reduction methods in Early Childhood Caries

Methods: This review covered the period from 1991 to 2005. A total of 134 journal articles were initially searched electronically from medline and embase using the search terms ‘oral health promotion’ (OHP) and ‘project for children and adolescents’ and further filtered with a total of retrieved 22 articles available for final analysis 

Results: Most international studies included in the literature review, originated in developed; few in developing countries with only one study from the Pacific region. Studies on preventive methods either implemented a singular strategy or combinations of preventive methods. Primary measures of study effect were oral health status and behaviour outcomes, calculated as dental caries and oral health behaviour improvement, no change in dental caries or oral health behaviour and unreported findings.

Conclusions:

: All studies except six, adopted combinations of preventive modalities. Disappointingly, many studies lack emphasis, render low priority or did not report oral health status measurement as an outcome.