Claudia Villalobos
Specialists in dentistry and psychology from the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias de la Salud (CICS), Santo Tomás Unit, carried out a research project to contribute to reducing the cavity rate in pediatric patients aged 4 to 6 who receive care at the dental clinic of that academic unit. The project is based on changing dental hygiene habits and promoting a healthy diet.
The interdisciplinary project brought together periodontics specialist, Laura Ligia González López, pediatric dentist Dulce María Mendoza Velasco, psychologist Juan Eduardo César Manjarrez, and psychology master Gerardo Leija Alva.
The team, which also included social service intern Edgar Alejandro Cruz García and a ninth-semester student enrolled in the Programa Institucional de Formación de Investigadores (PIFI), Víctor Omar Martínez Ruiz, successfully reduced plaque significantly in participants over a period of four months.
The specialists from CICS Santo Tomás chose the age range of 4 to 6 years for the research since, according to official data from the Ministry of Health, 95 percent of children suffer from cavities in these ages.
They formed two groups of children. Parents in the control group were only taught the brushing technique, while those responsible for the other children underwent a psychological technique called motivational interviewing to foster attachment to changes in hygiene and eating habits.
The specialists pointed out that children between 4 and 6 years old do not have sufficient skills for dental brushing as they have not fully developed fine psychomotor skills. Therefore, they require guidance from parents or primary caregivers. However, supervision is often lacking due to various circumstances, and when they are given sweets as a reward for achievements, the problem exacerbates.
Motivational interviewing aimed to induce primary caregivers to reflect on the benefits of proper hygiene and nutrition for children's health. After four months, they managed to decrease the percentage of bacterial plaque from 97 to 55 percent, achieving a change in habits not only in the children but in the entire family nucleus.
The specialists emphasized that the results obtained are the product of collaboration between both disciplines, and they considered it wise to develop projects along the same lines that contribute to maintaining oral health in children. An untreated cavity in anyone can lead to major problems, but in children, it can evolve unfavorably and lead to serious situations.
They considered it necessary to strengthen the connection between both disciplines (dentistry and psychology) and even seek for the results of this research and others in collaboration to lay the groundwork for creating a specialization in pediatric dentistry with interdisciplinary involvement in psychology. This would provide graduates with additional tools to improve adherence to treatments.
Meanwhile, Angélica Serena Alvarado García, research head at CICS UST, highlighted the increasing emphasis globally on applied research so that the results are not only documented in an article but also translated into benefits for society, as in the case of this project and others that could be carried out with the same perspective of directly impacting population health.
Gaceta Politécnica #1757. (November 15th, 2023). IPN Imagen Institucional: Read the full magazine in Spanish here
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