What is it about?

We asked children to describe how dental decay impacted on their lives. Not surprisingly they told us about pain but they also described the difficulties they had eating and the emotional impacts it had on them. Children mentioned that their teeth "annoyed" them, which was different to them "hurting".They also described missing out on doing things with their friends and that it affected their schoolwork. This helped us understand the language and the important aspects of the disease which we used to create a questionnaire that would help us as dentists understand which of our treatments for decayed teeth might work best for children.

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Why is it important?

This is the first time that researchers have asked children to describe the effects of dental decay on their lives. By understanding what the impacts are and the language they use to describe them we could use that to make a questionnaire that tackled the important issues and ensure that it was meaningful to children who would complete it.

Perspectives

Hearing children's accounts of how dental decay affects them and the language they use has changed my behaviour as a clinician. I now ask the children I see more pertinent questions about their symptoms and understand that they might not use the word "pain" but rather refer to chronic pain as something which is "annoying". This work formed the basis of my PhD and talking to children about their teeth was one of the most rewarding (and fun!) things I've done.

Miss Fiona Gilchrist
University of Sheffield

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: The impact of dental caries on children and young people: what they have to say?, International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, July 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ipd.12186.
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