Counseling Role of Primary Care Physicians in Preventing Early Childhood Caries in Children with Congenital Heart Disease

The dental health of preschool children with congenital heart disease (CHD) is usually poor, which may contribute to the development of infective endocarditis (IE). Primary care physicians play an important role in providing access to preventive dental services, particularly for preschool children. The object of this study was to provide epidemiologic evidence for the impact of primary care physicians' (PCP's) counseling role on early childhood caries in children with CHD in Guangzhou, China, which might guide future caries prevention to decrease the risk of IE in children with CHD. A hospital-based, case-control study was performed, which contained 100 children with newly diagnosed early childhood caries and 100 matched (sex and age) children without dental caries. All of the subjects were diagnosed with CHD at birth and recruited from Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute from 2012 through 2013. A conditional multivariate logistic-regression model was used to assess the associations between PCPs' role and early childhood caries with a significance level of 5%. Our findings revealed that mother's education level (OR = 0.36, CL = 0.14-0.92) and knowledge, being educated on the relationship between CHD and infective endocarditis (OR = 0.48, CL = 0.25-0.94) and the impact of oral health on infective endocarditis (OR = 0.37, CL = 0.18-0.79) by the PCP were associated with early childhood caries. PCPs played an important role in preventing early childhood caries among preschool children with CHD in Guangzhou, China.