Barriers to providing oral health care to pre-school children – differences between paediatric dentists’ and general dental practitioners’ beliefs

Abstract

Background: The unmet dental needs of pre-school children indicate there are barriers in ‘accessing’ appropriate oral health care and this warrants consideration of care providers’ beliefs. Objective: To explore the beliefs and attitudes of dentists in Hong Kong towards providing oral health care to pre-school children; and to determine difference in attitudes between general dental practitioners (GDPs) and paediatric dentists (PDs). Methods: A random sample of 476 GDPs (~25% of all registered dentists) and all registered PDs (28) were invited to participate in the study. Both groups were asked to complete the Barriers to Childhood Caries Treatment (BaCCT) questionnaire: a 29-item measure considering child, parent, dentist and health care system factors. Differences in attitudes of GDPs and PDs were examined in bivariate and regression analyses. Results: The overall response rate of the study was 61.5% (310/504). There were significant differences in overall BaCCT scores and across all domains between GDPs and PDs (p<0.05). Furthermore, variations across many aspects (as described at an item level) were apparent. Regression analyses confirmed differences in BaCCT between GDPs and PDs, controlling for practice and other factors. Conclusions: Differences exist between GDPs’ and PDs’ perceptions of barriers to care for early childhood caries. This has implications for how to address ‘access’ issues with likely implications on how to overcome barriers to care for pre-school children.