This study demonstrates that the prevalence of ECC was high among children in Seoul. Early educational intervention programs for pregnant women and mothers of young children should be developed based on the risk factors identified in this study.
Overall, the results of this study suggest that most dental hygienists do not have up-to-date information on the etiology and prevention of dental caries, mechanisms of action of fluoride and effectiveness of preventive procedures. Efforts to increase the level of knowledge of Korean dental hygienists about caries prevention should focus on strategies to educate dental hygienists who have not been taught to provide oral health education, who do not have favorable opinions about the desirability of oral health education, and who had no experience with providing oral health education as part of their work, especially hygienists working in private clinics. Further, these efforts should include the revision of dental hygiene curricula and continuing education courses.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Objectives: The purposes of this study were to review changes in the amount of pit and fissure sealant (PFS) provided after the inclusion of PFS in treatments covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI) and to assess differences in the supplied amount between geographical areas where accessibility to dental care differs. Methods: The years for comparison were selected based on data availability and the time of inclusion of PFS into NHI coverage. The selected pre-inclusion year was 2008, and the post-inclusion year was 2012. Data regarding the amount of PFS supplied were collected from the oral health program, NHI, and Medical care. To dichotomize areas by high and low dental care accessibility, we standardized the population size, number of dental institutions, and number of dentists in each group. Results: We considered metropolitan areas and Gyeonggi Province as high dental care accessibility areas, while other provinces were considered as low dental care accessibility areas. Regardless of the transforming constant, the amount of PFS supplied increased in high dental care accessibility areas and decreased in low dental care accessibility areas after inclusion of PFS in NHI. Conclusions: To increase the amount of PFS provided in low dental care accessibility areas, promotion of PFS should be strengthened and support from oral health programs should be increased. Additionally, waiving out-of-pocket money for PFS in NHI should be considered to remove barriers of supply.
Background: In South Korea, dental sealant was included in the National Health Insurance Services (NHIS) coverage for the first molar for ages 6-14 in December 2009. The second molar was included in 2012, and the age of insurance coverage was extended to under 18 in 2013. This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of an NHIS dental sealant coverage policy for children and adolescents by comparing the changes in first molar oral health indicators before and after policy implementation. Methods: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data were analyzed; the fourth period (2007-2009) provided data for before and the sixth period (2013-2015) provided data for after policy implementation. The proportion of individuals with first-molar sealant, decay-missing-filled first molar permanent teeth, and single crowns in the group aged 11-20 years were calculated. Data were analyzed using chi-square for complex samples and the complex samples general linear model. In addition, complex-sample logistic regression analysis was performed to confirm the association between factors. Results: Compared with non-beneficiaries, among policy beneficiaries, sealant ownership increased by 7.7% (from 27.8 to 35.5, P < 0.001), and the number of permanent teeth with sealant per capita increased by approximately 0.4 to 0.8 (P < 0.001). The proportion of individuals with decay-missing-filled permanent teeth decreased by 9.1% (from 68.4 to 59.3, P < 0.001), and the average decay-missing-filled permanent teeth index per person decreased by approximately 2.0 to 1.5 (P < 0.001). The rate of single-crown holders decreased by 2.7% (from 8.7 to 6.0, P > 0.05), and the average single-crown index decreased by approximately 0.11 to 0.08 per person(P > 0.05). The number of sealants increased with age and household income (P < 0.001). The mother's education level affected sealant experience (P < 0.05). The caries rate was higher in females and older respondents (P < 0.001).
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