The Strong Teeth project: supporting dental teams to have effective preventive behaviour change conversations with parents of young children

This lecture will showcase different resources, videos and training material to support dental teams to have effective behaviour change conversations with their patients.

The “Strong Teeth” project was developed to support dental teams to have effective oral health conversations they have with parents of young children. The project worked closely with dental teams, parents and children from different backgrounds and communities to identify the challenges faced in establishing good oral health habits from early childhood. In a series of short presentations, we will cover why the Strong Teeth project was developed, the underpinning research, how the resources were developed and what they look like. We will discuss how to structure behaviour change conversations and manage parents who are resistant to the advice provided.

We will report on a research study which examined the impact of the “Strong Teeth” project, with respect to the acceptability of the resources to parents and dental teams, and what effect they had on the adoption of good oral health habits at home.

As dental care professionals, we have preventive conversations with parents of young children in clinic every day. From our own experiences and clinical research these conversations can be complex and challenging. This is especially true when parents are resistant to the advice we offer.