A Pilot Study to Observe Potential Opportunities for Oral Health Education in a Pediatric Dental Clinic

Abstract

Background: This research outlines the rationale and purpose for including oral health education in the waiting rooms of dental clinics. Aims: We quantified the activities of children and their parents in a dental waiting room prior to their dental checkup and explored if a child-centric educational video about oral health habits would catch the attention of children while engaged in waiting room activities. Methods: A pilot study using an observational research design was employed. Descriptive data were computed for 16 families at a dental clinic. Results: Results showed that children and their families participated in a variety of activities while in the waiting room before the dental checkup. Over the 5 hours of observation (i.e., 300 minutes), there were 13 minutes of transitional time for the 16 families which also translated to down time for the researchers. The majority of time spent in the waiting room was for viewing the oral health literacy content on the television screen (117 minutes), followed in descending order by physical movement and play with toys (100 minutes), digital technologies (39 minutes), and reading and writing with print-based materials (31 minutes). Conclusion: Observations of a pediatric dental clinic provided important insights into the human interactions, activities, and affordances available to children and their parents. The clinic environment included the objects and technologies that were used by children in the waiting room, including the implementation and viewing of four Electronic Texts for Health Literacy© on a television screen that was made available for the first time in the dental clinic. The pilot study provided a foundational step in quantifying the interactive climate established by children and their parents when selecting activities in the waiting room prior to visiting with the dentist and dental hygienist. Implications for health literacy is discussed and the value of providing families with educational messages in the waiting room about oral health hygiene where they may not exist currently. This explicit change will fulfill the global call to action for dentists to offer more oral health education in their clinics for children and their parents.