174 - Effects of Video Counseling to Educate and Prevent ECC

Purpose: Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is the presence of 1 or more decayed, missing, or filled surfaces in any primary tooth of a child under the age of 6. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of an educational oral health video. The video consists of oral health information and is based on a survey given to parents before and after video viewing.

Methods: A 12-question pre-test consisting of dental-based questions, and a demographic/base knowledge survey was given to parents with a child in the 0-6 age range. Questions are a statement related to oral health followed by a selection of “agree/disagree.” Following completion, an informational video was viewed covering topics from the questionnaire. A post-survey was given to assess the efficacy of the video.

Results: A paired t-test was used to compare the difference between pre and post-test scores. Test improvement differences in educational level was evaluated with an independent samples t-test. Where ANOVA was significant, Tukey's honestly significant different test was used for post-hoc pairwise comparisons. Significance was defined as P < .05. An improvement of 3.1 answers, standard deviation of 2.6, was seen after parents watched the educational video. The “Less than 12th” educational group improved the most (4.3 ± 2.9).

Conclusion: This study presented understanding in which demographics are in need of basic oral health education, and what concepts need to be emphasized. The educational video had the best response in lower education groups and improvement was seen in answers following the video.