Prevention dental caries by improving oral hygiene through a high-fiber diet in children with mixed dentition: Experimental study in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia

Aim: This study was aim to analyze the effect of chewing high-fiber food (fresh pears/ Pyrus bretshneideri) to improve oral hygiene as an effort to prevent dental caries in children with mixed dentition.
Materials & Methods: A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group design was used to investigated 40 children attending a private school in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia. Subjects who were present on the day of examination, does not have calculus covering more than 2/3 of the crown of the tooth, has moderate to poor debris index criteria, is physically and mentally healthy, and is not on treatment were included in this study. The outcome was the children’s oral hygiene, so debris index (DI) was measured according to the Greene and Vermilion debris index (The simplified OHI). The research data obtained were analyzed using SPSS-software, with the normality test using the Kolmogorov Smirnov test and the paired T-test to compare quantitative data.
Results: The mean debris index of children after chewing high-fiber food decreased showing a significant reduction by 0.73 (t 23.086, p-value < 0.001).
Conclusion: In this present study showed that the level of debris index among children decreased after chewing high-fiber food, indicating that consuming high fiber food can improve children’s oral hygiene, and is a major factor in the prevention of dental caries.