The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and DePaul University have secured a $3.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an intervention aimed at improving children's oral health following dental surgery. The new program, named PROTECT, will deploy community health workers to help families make positive behavioral changes post-surgery.

Helen Lee, MD, MPH, a pediatric anesthesiologist at UIC, and Joanna Buscemi, PhD, a clinical psychologist at DePaul University, are leading the project. They aim to determine if dental surgeries can serve as an opportunity for long-term improvements in oral health.

“What drove us is that the health system can do better. Socially, we can do better. When we asked parents about their child’s teeth, we realized that everything connected to how parents and children interact,” said Lee.

The program focuses on two main goals: increasing adult-assisted tooth brushing frequency and reducing children's sugar intake. Community health workers will meet with caregivers during their child's surgery and continue support through regular sessions over six months.

A pilot study showed promising results, with all participating families reporting increased tooth brushing and reduced sugar consumption. This additional funding will enable a larger randomized control trial to test the program's efficacy.

Buscemi highlighted the challenges many families face in maintaining good oral hygiene due to life circumstances such as food insecurity and stress. “We’re not just handing out informational sheets about brushing teeth," she said. "Instead, we're using evidence-based behavioral tools to teach caregivers how to problem-solve around barriers.”

Community health workers play a crucial role in this intervention by understanding the unique stresses faced by the communities they serve. The program is also available in Spanish and tailored to individual family needs.

“There's not one solution for every family because every family runs differently,” Lee noted.

The research team comprises professionals from various disciplines including anesthesiology, psychology, pediatric dentistry, pediatrics, dietetics, and biostatistics. They believe that PROTECT has the potential to improve overall household health and reduce healthcare costs by connecting families with social support services.

“When we look at links between oral health and other chronic diseases across the lifespan, there are connections to diabetes, heart diseases and other major causes of death,” Buscemi explained. “By starting with young kids, we’re hoping PROTECT will also have long-term health benefits down the road.”

PROTECT was developed with support from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of NIH. Additional researchers involved are affiliated with UIC's colleges of dentistry, medicine, applied health sciences, and the Institute for Health Research and Policy.