Please note: This website has recently moved from www.health.gov to odphp.health.gov. www.health.gov is now the official website of ODPHP’s parent organization, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). Please update your bookmarks for easy access to all our resources. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Interventions with Pregnant Women, New Mothers and Other Primary Caregivers for Preventing Early Childhood Caries

About this resource:

Systematic Review

Source: The Cochrane Collaborative

Last Reviewed: November 2019

Workgroups: Oral Health Workgroup

In this Cochrane systemic review, the Cochrane Collaborative found that providing advice on diet and feeding to caregivers with children up to the age of 1 year probably leads to a slightly reduced risk of tooth decay in their children. Researchers observed this effect up to the age of 6 when compared to usual care. They also compared usual care with other oral health education interventions and treatments to reduce bacteria in mothers’ mouths. There’s insufficient evidence to conclude that these interventions and treatments significantly reduce the risk of tooth decay in children. 

Read more about this resource

Objectives related to this resource (2)

Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with lifetime tooth decay — OH‑01
Little or no detectable change
Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with active and untreated tooth decay — OH‑02
Improving

Suggested Citation

1.

Riggs,  E., Kilpatrick,  N., Slack‐Smith,  L., Chadwick,  B., Yelland,  J., Muthu,  M. S., & Gomersall,  J. C. (2016). Interventions with pregnant women, new mothers and other primary caregivers for preventing early childhood caries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019 (11). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD012155.pub2