Competencies for dental public health specialists: A thematic analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Competency frameworks have been used to accurately guide the training and assessment of professionals. Dental Public Health professionals require a variety of skills beyond clinical aspects to meet ongoing social, economic, epidemiologic, technological, etc. developments. The purpose of this study was to develop a primary competency framework for dental public health (DPH) professionals by reviewing existing documents that can be modified by authorities based on their needs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To identify DPH competencies, first a literature review of current postgraduate DPH competencies was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Google from May to June 2021. All English language documents addressing DPH competencies were included and transferred to MAXQDA software. Next, DPH competency domains were extracted and defined, using Clarke and Braun's six-step qualitative thematic analysis method. RESULTS: In total, 206 English documents were retrieved. After exclusion of 201 documents due to being duplicate or not related in screening stages, five full-text English documents describing competencies of DPH specialists from the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland were reviewed. Thematic analysis led to the provision of a framework consisting of all mentioned competencies in the reviewed documents including nine domains in education, research, management, policy, communication, leadership, professionalism, oral health status, and oral health services. CONCLUSION: The proposed primary framework covers all competency domains and, as a comprehensive tool, can be used as a guide by local, national, and international authorities to develop their own frameworks for training and evaluating the DPH workforce.

WHO Global Consultation on Public Health Intervention against Early Childhood Caries.

Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is prevalent around the world, but in particular the disease is growing rapidly in low- and middle-income countries in parallel with changing diet and lifestyles. In many countries, ECC is often left untreated, a condition which leads to pain and adversely affects general health, growth and development, and quality of life of children, their families and their communities. Importantly, ECC is also a global public health burden, medically, socially and economically. In many countries, a substantial number of children require general anaesthesia for the treatment of caries in their primary teeth (usually extractions), and this has considerable cost and social implications. A WHO Global Consultation with oral health experts on "Public Health Intervention against Early Childhood Caries" was held on 26-28 January 2016 in Bangkok (Thailand) to identify public health solutions and to highlight their applicability to low- and middle-income countries. After a 3-day consultation, participants agreed on specific recommendations for further action. National health authorities should develop strategies and implement interventions aimed at preventing and controlling ECC. These should align with existing international initiatives such as the Sixtieth World Health Assembly Resolution WHA 60.17 Oral health: action plan for promotion and integrated disease prevention, WHO Guideline on Sugars and WHO breastfeeding recommendation. ECC prevention and control interventions should be integrated into existing primary healthcare systems. WHO public health principles must be considered when tackling the effect of social determinants in ECC. Initiatives aimed at modifying behaviour should focus on families and communities. The involvement of communities in health promotion, and population-directed and individual fluoride administration for the prevention and control of ECC is essential. Surveillance and research, including cost-effectiveness studies, should be conducted to evaluate interventions aimed at preventing ECC in different population groups.

Dentists' familiarity with tobacco cessation programs in dental settings in Iran.

OBJECTIVES: The current study assessed Iranian dentists' practice, knowledge, perceived barriers, and attitudes toward helping patients to quit. We hypothesized that Iranian dentists would have limited knowledge and awareness of tobacco cessation methods or of their important role in encouraging patients to quit. We expected the combination of quantitative and qualitative research to yield important insights regarding effective methods of engaging Iranian dentists in tobacco intervention. METHODS: From a list of registered dentists following an initial screening, we randomly selected a total of 1,000 dental practices in 10 randomly selected provinces. Following an initial letter describing the study, we mailed a questionnaire. For the qualitative part of the study, we used a convenience purposeful sampling of 16 dentists. RESULTS: Despite repeated contacts, only 35 percent of those contacted returned completed surveys. Key findings not only included generally positive attitudes toward tobacco cessation programs, but also identification of major barriers including concerns about patient resistance, lack of supportive organization, and opportunities for training. Dentists were far more likely to ask patients about smoking than to provide actual cessation support. Female dentists were more likely to ask patients. The qualitative interviews shed further light on barriers to intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Interpretation of the findings is limited by the relatively low response rate. However, despite identified barriers to intervention, we are encouraged by dentists' overall knowledge and interest in tobacco cessation services. We plan to use the current findings to inform development of continuing education programs and incorporation of tobacco cessation counseling into dental school curricula in Iran.

Acyclovir for treating primary herpetic gingivostomatitis.

BACKGROUND: Primary herpetic gingivostomatitis is a highly contagious infection of the oral cavity which typically affects children but can also occur in adults. Symptoms may vary widely from mild discomfort to life-threatening encephalitis. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of systemic acyclovir for primary herpetic gingivostomatitis. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the following databases: Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register (to 22 May 2008); the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2008, Issue 2); MEDLINE (1950 to 22 May 2008); and EMBASE (1980 to 22 May 2008). There were no language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials comparing acyclovir to placebo in children and young adults < 25 years of age with a diagnosis of primary herpetic gingivostomatitis with or without herpes labialis were considered. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently and in duplicate screened and extracted information from, and assessed the risk of bias in the included clinical trials. The Cochrane Collaboration statistical guidelines were followed for data synthesis. MAIN RESULTS: Only two clinical trials, one with 72 participants and the other with 20 participants were included in this review. The second study failed to report several methodological items and was inconsistent in its reporting of the outcomes measurement.The first trial, with a moderate risk of bias, showed better results in the acyclovir group compared to the placebo group in children < 6 years of age in reducing the number of individuals with oral lesions (risk ratio (RR) 0.10 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02 to 0.38)), new extraoral lesions (RR 0.04 (95% CI 0.00 to 0.65)), difficulty in eating (RR 0.14 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.58)), and drinking difficulties (RR 0.11 (95% CI 0.01 to 0.83)) after 8 days of treatment.Following the onset of treatment, three patients from the placebo group were admitted to hospital for rehydration (P = 0.11).Four children (two from the acyclovir, and two from the placebo group) showed mild gastrointestinal symptoms that resolved spontaneously after 24 to 48 hours without a change in the study treatment. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We found two relevant trials in this systematic review, only one of them could provide some weak evidence that acyclovir is an effective treatment in reducing the number of oral lesions, preventing the development of new extraoral lesions, decreasing the number of individuals with difficulties experienced in eating and drinking and reducing hospital admission for children under 6 years of age with primary herpetic gingivostomatitis.