Title: Monitoring plaque through caregivers using the Community Plate Index (CPI)
Abstract:
The measurement of dental plaque through indexes has allowed to evaluate the oral hygiene of the people, to evaluate the effectiveness of programs of oral health promotion and the effectiveness of therapeutic methods among others. The School of Dentistry at the University of Valle in Cali, Colombia, and the Pacific XXI century research group have developed an oral hygiene index for community use that has been applied through caregivers such parents, school teachers, community mothers And groups of adolescents from schools that are finishing their high school studies and perform social work as volunteers.
In 2009, a screening test was conducted on 83 children at a school in the city of Cali to determine the sensitivity of the community plaque index and found that it was more sensitive than the Silness & Löe and Greene & Vermillion indices; also it did not show significant differences with the pattern index. The measured sensitivity was 95.1 (95% CI: 92.5-97.4); 75.2 (95% CI: 73.1 - 77.1); 69.5 (95% CI: 66.0 - 73.0) for CPI index, index detritus Greene - Vermillion and index Silness and Löe respectively.
In 2010, an uncontrolled trial was carried out, evaluating the efficacy of parents' plaque monitoring in grade 0 children at the Juan Pablo II School. Participated 32 students, 18 girls and 14 children with an average age of 5.6 years. The group with adherence greater than 75% was made up of 5-year-old children; the plaque index presented significant differences at weeks 8, 12, 18, 20, 24 and 28 (p <0.05).
A CPI concordance study among dentistry students and ninth grade students in a high school examined 119 children in grades three, four, and five of elementary school. In the standardization of Community plaque index concordance was 92% (Kappa index) and no significant differences between rates of plaque recorded among evaluators found.
The CPI was also applied by 116 teachers from 20 schools participating in the healthy school strategy in 20 municipalities in Valle del Cauca who were trained in oral health promotion and plaque control through standardization of the CPI. The teachers carried out 160 actions to promote oral health to groups of schoolchildren benefiting 6400 schoolchildren. An initial plate index of 66% was lowered to 26%.
It is concluded that the design of an index for easy to use, low cost, high coverage, patient participation monitoring of different personnel to the dental clinic makes it possible to achieve the benefits of prevention to a large number of population contributing to control Risk factors of the two most common oral diseases such as caries and periodontal diseases.
