Oral Health Practices and Policies Among Family and Center-based Child Care Facilities

OBJECTIVES: Almost 30% of US preschool children have dental caries and 75% of US children use regular child care. However, little information is available about caries prevention efforts in child care. We assessed the oral health related perceptions, practices, and policies of family-based child care providers (home care providers) and center-based child care providers (center providers).

METHOD: A self-administered survey was collected from child care providers who attended local child care training workshops in Illinois in 2009. Responses were obtained from 94 center providers and 88 home care providers. RESULTS: Only 42.2% of home and 21.1% of center facilities had written policy or guidelines about oral hygiene practices (p=0.0945), yet were similar on restricting unhealthy food/beverages (73.4% home and 72.7% center, p=0.9482). While 49.3% of home care providers provided bottle water, only 11.1% of center care providers did (p=0.0005). Less than half of the providers (45.9% home and 24.1% center, p=0.042) received oral health training during the last year; whereas 32.1% home and 25% center providers (p=0.4857) reported that the child care children brush their teeth with toothpaste after snacks or meals. Both groups expressed that the home environment has a stronger influence on oral health of children than the child care environment. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, home care providers reported having higher percentages of oral health practices and policies than did center providers. However, there is room for improvement in both settings. Further studies are needed to understand the barriers and facilitators of oral health promotion efforts in child care.