Aim: To consider the ability of mothers to screen caries in their special health care needs (SHCN) children after attending an educational training program.
Subjects & Methods: A study involving 100 mothers of SHCN children aged 4 - 6 years old seeking treatment at the general anesthesia unit of Egyptian Society for Pediatric Dentistry and Children with Special Needs (ESPSN)-Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine-Cairo University. Mothers of SHCN children were trained in a 3 hours training program by the researchers to detect caries in their children using power point presentations, and flash cards. Mothers were trained to screen caries according to the WHO (1997) criteria for caries diagnosis. After the training program, all mothers performed caries screening on their own children. The findings were checked for validity by comparing mothers' findings with researchers' findings as the gold standard.
Results: The overall prevalence of caries in the sample was 90%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of mothers' caries screening were 94.4%, 70.0%, 90.8% and 81.5% respectively.
Conclusions: It was feasible to train mothers with basic skills to screen dental caries in their special health care needs children. This prospect might provide a substantial future venue, giving mothers of children with SHCN a chance to seek dental treatment early and thus avoid further complications and extensive treatment.