Study examines the use of silver diamine fluoride as an early childhood caries management strategy

A study seeking to understand the perspectives of decision-makers (DMs) working within health fields in First Nations (FNs) communities in Canada regarding the use of Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) as an early childhood caries (ECC) management strategy will be presented at the 101st General Session of the IADR, which will be held in conjunction with the 9th Meeting of the Latin American Region and the 12th World Congress on Preventive Dentistry on June 21-24, 2023, in Bogotá, Colombia.

The Interactive Talk presentation, "Decision-Makers' Perspectives on Silver Diamine Fluoride in Indigenous Communities," will take place on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 3:40 p.m. Colombia Time (UTC-05:00) during the "Fluorides for Caries Control" session.

The study by Fabio Gregorio Arriola-Pacheco of the University of Toronto, Canada carried out six Indigenous Learning Circles (LCs) in five FNs communities in the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Information about the status of ECC in these communities and treatment needs were first delivered by researchers as preparational engagement for clinical integration of SDF into the communities' dental programs. Focus-group-style conversations followed utilizing a semi-structured format, from which audio recordings were later transcribed and analyzed thematically.

Themes which emerged from the LCs included a resistance towards SDF staining, how it compared to other ECC treatment strategies, the need for a prior educational component (to parents and the community at large) as key to SDF's acceptance, suggestions on implementation strategies, and skepticism—grounded in historical contexts—about the novelty and efficacy of SDF. Some identified themes overlap with recurrent ones in the literature, while others are unique and significant to the DMs' power position and the cultural context from which the sample was derived.