Lauren, T. Rasmussen
Nicole, A. Levine
Sophia Porach
| Lauren, T. Rasmussen | Nicole, A. Levine | Sophia Porach |
Lauren T. Rasmussen, Nicole A. Levine, Sophia Porach
Deanne, E Wallaert
Division of Community Oral Health, Preventive & Restorative Sciences, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
Description
First Five at Penn Dental Medicine Saito Pediatric Care Center
Project Overview
Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) is an effective dental material solution used to arrest early childhood caries. However, the solution can give off an unpleasant metallic taste and requires application for at least one minute. These are just some of the challenges encountered when applying SDF on young children. The goal of our First Five Honor’s quality improvement project is to improve the SDF experience in at least 50% of participant children up to the age of 5. This improvement is shown by an increase in Frankl Score of at least 1 point at the second SDF application appointment in patients with a first SDF application score of 3 or less.
Outcome
Our results show no decrease in FRANKL score during the second application appointment for patients after they perform this exercise. Equally, we saw either no change in behavior or an increase in score by 1. We conclude that even for those patients whose behavior score remained unchanged all participants enjoyed the activity and this behavioral management should be utilized more often.