The impact of dental caries on children and young people: what they have to say?

BACKGROUND: Dental caries affects 60-90% of children across the world and is associated with a variety of negative impacts. Despite its ubiquity, there has been surprisingly little exploration of these impacts from the child's perspective. AIM: The aim was to allow children to describe the impact of dental caries on their daily lives and to describe the terminology they used. DESIGN: Children, aged 5-15 years, with caries experience were purposively sampled from primary and secondary care dental clinics. Focus groups (n = 5) and in-depth interviews (n = 16) were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis took a narrative approach, and themes were derived from the data using framework analysis. RESULTS: Pain was the main theme to emerge. Within this, three subthemes were identified: impacts related to pain, strategies adopted to reduce pain, and emotional aspects resulting from pain. A second theme was also identified relating to the aesthetic aspects of caries. CONCLUSION: Children as young as 5 years of age were able to competently discuss their experiences of dental caries. Participants reported a number of impacts affecting various aspects of their lives. These will be incorporated into the future development of a caries-specific measure of oral health-related quality of life.