Introducing a clinical-behavioural scoring system for children's oral hygiene.
OBJECTIVE
Developing and testing a clinical-behavioural scoring system for assessing children's oral hygiene.


METHODS
One clinical variable (the presence of dental plaque, measured using Silness and Loe's index) and one behavioural variable (self-reported tooth brushing frequency) were combined into secondary data analysis of research databases for 3-6-year-olds and 6-13-year-olds in a Mexican community. The combined scoring is an ordinal scale that depicts suitable, moderate and inadequate hygiene. Blinded dental examiners also collected dmft/DMFT data in standardised conditions. Data was analysed with Spearman's rho, Kruskall-Wallis, non-parametric tests for trends and Pearson's chi2 tests.


RESULTS
1303 children aged 3-6 years old and 1644 children aged 6-13 years old participated in the study. Clear relationships existed between the combined scoring system and dmft (p < 0.01) and between the scoring system and DMFT (p < 0.01), suggesting that the combined clinical-behavioural scoring system is a reasonably accurate measurement of the relationship between caries experience and oral hygiene in children in the given setting.


CONCLUSIONS
The combined clinical-behavioural scoring system is a simple, easy-to-use tool that incorporates clinical and behavioural data commonly found in dental systems. Whether the clinical-behavioural scoring system can be generalised remains to be established.
Medina-Solís
Carlo E
CE
Centro de Investigación en Sistemas de Salud del Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuenavaca, México. cemedinas@yahoo.com
Maupomé
Gerardo
G
Segovia-Villanueva
América
A
Casanova-Rosado
Alejandro J
AJ
Vallejos-Sánchez
Ana A
AA
Casanova-Rosado
Juan F
JF
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D009911:Oral Hygiene Index; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data