Child- and family-level factors associated with toothbrushing frequency in a sample of Australian children.

BACKGROUND: Identifying the factors that are conducive to good toothbrushing practices is fundamental for planning oral health promotion interventions. AIM: This study evaluated the relationships between child and family socio-demographic characteristics; children's behaviour during toothbrushing; family support for toothbrushing; parents' practices, attitudes and knowledge related to toothbrushing; general parenting practices; and children's behavioural problems, and children's toothbrushing frequency. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between February and May 2020 with parents of children aged 2-8 years, recruited through childcare centres throughout Australia. Parents completed self-administered surveys on child and family characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 606 parents completed the survey. Only half (52.5%) of the children of surveyed parents brushed their teeth twice or more/day. Children of university-educated parents [odds ratio (OR): 6.48; 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 1.21-34.71] and those concerned about their child's toothbrushing (OR: 1.44; 95% CI: 1.21-1.72) were more likely to brush twice or more/day. Where children were non-compliant during toothbrushing or parents reported using ineffective parenting strategies during toothbrushing, children were less likely to brush their teeth twice or more/day. Lack of concern of parent about toothbrushing was associated with brushing less than twice/day in children CONCLUSIONS: Measures of parenting and child behaviour that were specific to the toothbrushing context were associated with twice daily brushing while general measures of parenting and child behaviour were not correlated with twice daily brushing.

Online Parenting Intervention for Children's Eating and Mealtime Behaviors: Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

INTRODUCTION: Obesity and overweight are significant health problems among Australian children. Parents play a vital role in establishing healthy eating behaviors in their children. However, parents often experience difficulties in implementing effective parenting practices and lack confidence in their ability to help children adopt these behaviors. This trial will evaluate the efficacy of an online program, Healthy Habits Triple P, in improving children's snacking and mealtime behaviors and related parenting practices. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a single-blinded, randomized controlled trial for parents of young Australian children aged 2-6 years. Participants will be recruited through childcare centers, social media, online parent forums and existing networks. The participants in the intervention arm will receive access to a web-based parenting intervention in addition to nutrition-related information for parents published by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia; those in the control arm will receive nutrition-related information only. After the completion of the study, the parenting intervention will be offered to the control arm. The primary outcome will be improvement in children's eating habits. The secondary outcomes include parents' self-efficacy, confidence, children's mealtime behaviors and mealtime parenting strategies. Both primary and secondary outcomes will be evaluated through online-administered, validated parent-reported questionnaires. We will also undertake a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the practicality and acceptability of the intervention.

Protocol of a cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of an online parenting intervention for promoting oral health of 2-6 years old Australian children.

INTRODUCTION: Dental decay is a major problem among Australian children. It can be prevented through good self-care and limiting sugar intake, but many parents/caregivers lack the skills and confidence to help their children adopt these practices. This trial will evaluate the efficacy of Healthy Habits Triple P - Oral health, a web-based online programme, in improving children's oral health-related behaviours (toothbrushing, snacking practices and dental visits) and related parenting practices, thereby preventing dental caries. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a cluster, parallel-group, single-blinded, randomised controlled trial of an online intervention for parents/caregivers of children aged 2-6 years. From the City of Gold Coast (Australia), 18 childcare centres will be randomly selected, with equal numbers randomised into intervention and control arms. Intervention arm parents/caregivers will receive access to a web-based parenting intervention while those in the control arm will be directed to oral health-related information published by Australian oral health agencies. After the completion of the study, the Healthy Habits Triple P - Oral health intervention will be offered to parents/caregivers in the control arm. The primary outcome of this trial is toothbrushing frequency, which will be assessed via Bluetooth supported smart toothbrushes and parent/caregiver report. Data on other outcomes: parenting practices and child behaviour during toothbrushing, consumption of sugar rich foods and parents' confidence in dealing with children's demands for sugar rich food, and dental visiting practices, will be collected through a self-administered questionnaire at baseline (before randomisation), and 6 weeks (primary endpoint), 6 months and 12 months after randomisation. Data on dental caries will be collected at baseline, 12 and 18 months post-randomisation. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained from Human Research Ethics Committees of Griffith University (2020/700) and the University of Queensland (2020002839). Findings will be submitted for publication in leading international peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN12621000566831.

In vitro studies evaluating the efficacy of mouth rinses on Sars-Cov-2: A systematic review.

This systematic review aims to evaluate the evidence on the efficacy of mouth rinses on SARS-CoV-2 from in vitro studies. Five electronic databases were searched up to February 2021; no language or time restrictions were used. Two independent reviewers conducted both selection and data extraction processes. The toxicological data reliability assessment tool was used to evaluate the risk of bias. Starting from 239 articles, retrieved by the electronic search, only eight studies were included in our systematic review. Povidone Iodine (PVP-I) was effective in killing SARS-CoV-2, demonstrated higher virucidal activity than other commonly used active ingredients. Conflicting results were found about the effectiveness of Chlorhexidine (CHX) while hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) proved less effective than PVP-I. Other active ingredients, such as quaternary ammonium compounds and Ethanol (particularly when combined with essential oils), have also shown promising results in reducing viral load, with results comparable to PVP-I.