Methods: A questionnaire was designed based on a preliminary pool of items generated through a review of the literature. Dental experts and parents were approached to assess items in terms of comprehensiveness, relevance and clarity using a cross-sectional questionnaire based design. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with the 5 and 6 year old children themselves, using the questionnaire previously validated by paediatric dental experts and parents.
Results: The study found that most of the items generated by the literature review were found to be relevant by paediatric dental experts, parents and children. However, the study also showed information derived from the dental experts and parents did not correspond closely to that provided by the children themselves in terms of observable and non-observable functioning. Differences included judgement of impact of oral health on physical, emotional and social quality of life.
Conclusions: The study highlighted the importance of a multi-dimensional approach in eliciting oral health concerns of 5 and 6 year old children. The use of proxies and/or paediatric experts alone is inadequate for an appraisal to be made. Young children are able to provide enlightening and rich information regarding their personal oral health concerns so as to capture valid and genuine quality of life issues. The UK Children's National Service Framework requires child-centred services to reflect children's views. This has future implications for dental commissioning, clinical practice oral health promotion and research.