“Dentists’ and dietitians’ recommendations of snacks and dental caries experience among kindergarteners”

BACKGROUND: Parents receive diet recommendations for their children from dentists and dietitians, but a conflict of diet suggestions has been reported. This research was conducted to investigate dental caries experiences in children consuming snacks that were recommended by dentists and/or dietitians. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 442 kindergarteners under went dental examinations, and their caregivers filled out questionnaires. Snacks were sorted by name. Three dentists and three dietitians determined whether they would recommend these snacks. The snacks were divided into four categories: snacks recommended by both groups, snacks recommended by neither, snacks recommended only by dentists, and snacks recommend only by dieticians. Children were assigned to particular groups based on their primary snack consumption. The children’s caries experiences (dft) were compared among the four groups. RESULTS: The agreement level on the recommended snacks between dietitians and dentists was moderate (Kappa=0.43). Thirty-nine snacks were identified; 13 recommended by neither, 4 recommended by dietitians, 7 were recommended only by dentists, and 15 were recommended by both. The mean (standard deviation) of dft amongthe children was 4.66 (3.81), 2.66 (3.17), 3.21 (3.37), and 4.02 (4.02), and respectively. The ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests indicated that children who consumed snacks recommended only by one professional, dietitian or dentist, have significantly fewer dental caries than children who consumed snacks recommended by neither professional. (ANOVA: F=4.494, p=0.004, Tukey post-hoc test: p=0.007 and p=0.046, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Dentists can recommend snacks that are nutrient dense, even though it contains sucrose. Key words:Child, dental caries, snacks, dentist, nutritionists.