Child Dental Health( Activities & Objective )

This course comprises didactic, laboratory techniques and clinical parts.  The operative technique course in the laboratory helps to develop the students’ psychomotor skills in order to provide good quality dental care for children.

The didactic and clinical parts include the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease, the preservation of the natural definition as well as the restoration of health, functions and aesthetics of the oral system.  Assessment of the child patient shall include the medical and dental history, type of behaviour, occlusion, oral habits, soft tissues, carious lesions and radiographic interpretation as well as the practice of patient motivation, plaque control, topical fluoride and fissure sealants.

The clinical practice of operative dentistry for children including local anaesthesia, rubber dam placement amalgam and resin restorations, stainless crowns, pulp therapy for primary and young permanent teeth, and management of traumatised teeth.  Conditions to be managed will also include oral and skin manifestations of infectious diseases, periodical diseases, and systemic disease, dental problems in the disabled child and the medically compromised child. Extraction of primary teeth, space management appliances and the behaviour management procedures both psychological and pharmacological will be taught.

Briefly, this course covers the comprehensive management of children, 16 years and below.  The course equips the student with the ability to diagnose, formulate treatment plan and manage children accordingly.  Emphasis is placed on the special dental needs of children, including those with disabilities and other forms of medical compromise.  The normal growth, development as well as the promotion and maintenance of oral health for children is emphasized

Learning Outcomes for Paediatric Dentistry

Upon the completion of this course, the student should:

1. have acquired such psychomotor skills as to be able to treat a child by carrying out simple procedures in the clinic without inhibitions;
2. understand the basic morphologic applications of cavity preparation in primary teeth;
3. have gained the knowledge of matrix systems, amalgam and composite resin manipulation, stainless steel crown and strip crown restoration as related to the primary teeth;
4. understand the technique and indications for pulpotomy and pulpectomy in primary and young permanent teeth;
5. be able to utilize the sealant system as a preventive measure against caries;
6. be able to predict possible crowding problems and to utilize the various types of space maintainers as a preventive measure against malocclusion in cases of premature loss of primary teeth.

The students after completing the training should also be able to:

1. evaluate the patient’s need for behavior modification and apply different behavior modification techniques learnt including the role of sedation in the management of young children;
2. formulate a treatment plan for the child patient and discuss different approaches for the prevention of dental diseases with parents;
3. teach and motivate the parents in proper brushing technique according to age of their children;
4. administer local anaesthesia and use the rubber dam properly.
5. restore primary teeth and young permanent teeth using different materials available;
6. use the different chemical procedures available for pulp therapy.
7. manage dental trauma in children;
8. diagnose and manage physically challenged children and other medically compromised children.

This consists of two units:

1. PAEDIATRIC DENTISTRY
2. ORTHODONTICS