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ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the impact of "Brush Up" - a mobile application, on oral hygiene behaviours of 4-6-year-old children in Bangalore city. Methods: In this experimental study, 247 children aged 4-6, were randomly divided into three groups. Considering "Brush Up" is a mobile application, parents of the children in Group 1 (n=82) downloaded the application on their smartphones. Children in Group 2 (n=83) and Group 3 (n=82) received tooth brushing instructions by an educative video and manual demonstration, respectively. Effectiveness of tooth brushing was assessed with plaque scores, which were recorded for all the groups at baseline and one month using Visible Biofilm Index. Results: Wilcoxon signed rank test showed a significant improvement in the tooth brushing behaviour for the Brush Up group, which was indicated by a lower plaque score after a follow-up of one month. Kruskal-Wallis test followed by post-hoc test showed that the mean ranks of plaque scores of Brush Up group are consistently lower than those of video demonstration group and manual demonstration group. Conclusions: The lower plaque score in subsequent follow-up in Brush Up group suggests that using a smart system can enhance learning a correct tooth brushing method in young children and can also help in implementing the required reinforcement and motivation to brush and aid in better plaque control.
RESUMO Objetivo: Investigar o impacto do "Brush Up", um aplicativo móvel, sobre comportamentos de higiene bucal de crianças de 4 a 6 anos na cidade de Bangalore, na Índia. Métodos: Neste estudo experimental, 247 crianças de 4 a 6 anos foram divididas aleatoriamente em 3 grupos. Como "Brush Up" é um aplicativo móvel, os pais das crianças do Grupo 1 (n=82) baixaram o aplicativo em seus smartphones. As crianças do grupo 2 (n=83) e do grupo 3 (n=82) receberam instruções sobre escovação por meio de vídeo educativo e demonstração manual, respectivamente. A efetividade da escovação foi avaliada por meio de escores de placa bacteriana, registrados para todos os grupos antes da intervenção e um mês depois. Resultados: O teste de Wilcoxon sinalizou uma melhora significativa na escovação para o grupo "Brush Up", com uma pontuação mais baixa na placa bacteriana após um mês de acompanhamento. O teste de Kruskal-Wallis, seguido do teste post hoc, mostrou que as classificações médias das pontuações do grupo "Brush Up" foram consistentemente mais baixas do que as do grupo com demonstração em vídeo e demonstração manual. Conclusões: Os resultados obtidos no grupo "Brush Up" sugerem que o uso de um sistema inteligente pode melhorar o aprendizado de um método correto de escovação em crianças pequenas e ajudar na implementação do reforço e motivação necessários para escovar e controlar melhor a placa bacteriana.
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Humans , Male , Female , Child, Preschool , Child , Toothbrushing/methods , Mobile Applications , Parents , Toothbrushing/statistics & numerical data , Single-Blind Method , Dental Plaque Index , India , MotivationABSTRACT
Background: The global incidence of oral cancer occurs in low-resource settings. Community-based oral screening is a strategic step toward downstaging oral cancer by early diagnosis. The mobile health (mHealth) program is a technology-based platform, steered with the aim to assess the use of mHealth by community health workers (CHWs) in the identification of oral mucosal lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: mHealth is a mobile phone-based oral cancer-screening program in a workplace setting. The participants were screened by two CHWs, followed by an assessment by an oral medicine specialist. A mobile phone-based questionnaire that included the risk assessment was distributed among participants. On specialist recommendation an oral surgeon performed biopsy on participants. The diagnosis by onsite specialist that was confirmed by histopathology was considered as gold standard. All individuals received the standard treatment protocol. A remote oral medicine specialist reviewed the uploaded data in Open Medical Record System. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Inter-rater agreement was analyzed with Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ) test, and the diagnostic ability of CHWs, onsite specialist, and remote specialist was illustrated using receiver operating characteristic curve. RESULTS: CHWs identified oral lesions in 405 (11.8%) individuals; the onsite specialist identified oral lesions in 394 (11.4%) individuals; and the remote specialist diagnosed oral lesions in 444 (13%). The inter-rater agreement between the CHW and the onsite specialist showed almost perfect agreement with the κ score of 0.92, and a substantial agreement between CHW and remote specialist showed a score of 0.62. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of CHWs in the identification of oral lesion were 84.7, 97.6, 84.8, and 97.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The trained CHWs can aid in identifying oral potentially malignant disorders and they can be utilized in oral cancer-screening program mHealth effectively.
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Oral health is indeed a challenge for the urban poor. Majority of the patients spend from their pocket, which aggravates their financial condition. It is paramount for the government and the healthcare industry to adopt a value-based approach to redress the oral health lapses for the underserved population. Micro health insurance (MHI) can have a game changing effect on the oral healthcare space too, if concerned stakeholders build the right partner network. Aim of the study was to discuss the principal features, basic structure, and functioning of a few MHI schemes, and presents a hypothetical model of MHI which can be implemented in dentistry. Literature search was conducted in two main databases, pubmed and cochrane, using key phrases such as “community based health insurance,” “micro health insurance,” micro or community based health insurance,” and “health insurance and financial protection”. Articles published in last ten years with full texts were considered. 23 schemes were eligible for the systematic review. Our analysis shows that MHI, in the majority of cases, contributes to the financial protection of its beneficiaries, by reducing out of pocket health expenditure, catastrophic health expenditure, household borrowings and poverty. However, the studies did not affirm oral health benefits. The importance of oral healthcare in India is superficial. Focus on oral healthcare can be achieved only if the impending cost due to out of pocket payments can be supplanted with a more affordable and dynamic payment model. With MHI extended to oral healthcare, India can certainly achieve its SDG goal. It’s time to look beyond.
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We report a case of a 22-year-old male with Down syndrome and Morgagni hernia, who presented to us with complaints of cough, regurgitation and vomiting. He was successfully treated surgically and the defect was repaired with prolene mesh.