Multi Media Parent based Intervention to Promote Dental Hygiene Among Young Children BeReady Smile

Approximately one out of three to year old children in the United States has experienced caries tooth decay The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and American Academy of Pediatrics provide recommendations for preventive strategies and recognize that infant toddler and early childhood oral health is one of the foundations upon which preventive education and dental care must be built to enhance the opportunity for a lifetime free from preventable oral disease Parents struggle to adopt these preventive strategies at the same time that challenging behaviors emerge in childrenandapos s psychological development This combination can make it very difficult to build the foundation of oral health practices that the AAPD recommends There is a strong body of evidence supporting the use of behavioral parenting strategies in dealing with child behavioral problems The proposed project introduces behavioral parent training strategies in concert with efforts to address other known parental barriers to provide an effective vehicle to promote dental health with a universal prevention intervention This private public collaboration between Oregon Research Behavioral Intervention Strategies Oregon Research Institute andamp The Oregon Community Foundation will leverage resources and competencies to create a commercially viable coordinated oral health prevention intervention program to promote dental health targeted at parents of young children attending parenting education classes and families receiving home visiting services through Head Start The program includes a video that can be shown in parenting education classes to engage parents on oral health and a mobile web application to drive behavioral change In this Phase I application we propose developing a coordinated oral health prevention intervention program BeReady Smile including video and mobile web application An initial proof of concept version of this program and reminder set will be developed in the Phase I project and then tested for feasibility usability among parents of young children BeReady Smile will include video content that features demonstrations content on encouraging brushing proper loading of toothbrush brushing duration and frequency fluoride myths and limiting sugar sweetened beverages and milk in baby bottles while in bed BeReady Smile will also include a mobile application built within a web based infrastructure so parents can participate in multi media educational activities develop dental health behavior plans tailor features and receive feedback from the system on a secure website The long term goal of BeReady Smile is to help parents provide the foundation for a lifetime free from preventable oral disease This application BeReady Smile will promote dental health behavioral parenting strategies among parents by incorporating a behavioral program for their children Parents use a multimedia coordinated oral health prevention intervention program to promote dental health targeted at parents of young children attending parenting education classes and families receiving home visiting services through Head Start Once developed BeReady Smile will be field tested for usability and usefulness with a group of parents of young children Parents will rate the level of support needed confidence in the system and ease of use at each stage in the development initiation and maintenance of the system