Accuracy of Pediatric Primary Care Providers' Screening and Referral for Early Childhood Caries

Tooth decay is one of the more common diseases of childhood. Slightly >40% of US children are already affected by the time they reach kindergarten. Primary care physicians can play an important role in prevention and control of this disease because of their ready access to this population. Unlike dentists, they see a large percentage of children during their infant and toddler years. However, few studies have been conducted on oral screenings and referrals by primary care physicians or the effectiveness of their oral health preventive activities. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of pediatric primary care providers' screening and referral for Early Childhood Caries. We sought to compare independent, blinded oral screening results and referral recommendations made by primary care providers with those of a pediatric dentist, considered for purposes of the study to be the reference gold standard. The study was conducted at a private pediatric group practice in North Carolina. The practice was selected because it serves a large volume of Medicaid patients and includes a large number of pediatric primary care providers (11 pediatricians and 1 nurse practitioner). Study participants included Medicaid-eligible children younger than 36 months of age with erupted teeth. The pediatric primary care providers in this practice received 2 hours of training in infant oral health. The training consisted of a review of the study methods and clinical slides illustrating dental caries in various stages of progression. Specific instructions were given to the providers on how to recognize a cavitated carious lesion and how to determine when a dental referral is needed. Providers were instructed to refer any child with 1 or more cavitated carious lesions, soft tissue pathology, or evidence of trauma to the teeth or mouth. Before commencing the study, calibration and a comparative analysis were performed to establish reliability and validity of the examinations performed by the pediatric dentist. Both a pediatric dentist and a pediatric primary care provider conducted a dental screening on each child and recorded carious teeth and whether a dental referral was needed. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated to compare the pediatric primary care providers' screenings to the gold standard (pediatric dentist) in 3 categories: caries at the tooth level, caries at the patient level (1 or more affected teeth), and need for referral. The final study sample con