title: A prospective study of a caries prevention program in pregnant women and their children five and six years of age.
abstract: A preventive dental program (PDP) instituted in pregnant women and comprising an educational and a preventive part was evaluated when their children were five and six years of age. Dental caries was examined in sixty-seven mother-child pairs belonging to the program and in sixty-nine control mother-child pairs. In the five-year-old children 87 percent of the PDP group were caries free compared with the 50 percent in the control group. Comparable figures for six-year-old children were 89 percent and 62 percent in the PDP and control group, respectively. The mean dft of the PDP children five and six years of age was 0.4 and 0.2, respectively, versus 1.3 and 1.4 for the control children. The differences in caries-free status and caries prevalence were statistically significant. In conclusion, the preventive dental program which started in pregnant women and continued in the mothers and their children were highly effective for a long-term reduction of dental caries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Dentistry, University of Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Emilson
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002677:Chile; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006267:Health Education, Dental; D006801:Humans; D008430:Maternal-Child Health Centers; D009035:Mothers; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011313:Preventive Dentistry / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012463:Saliva / Q000382:microbiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000302:isolation & purification