From Volume 44, Issue 4, April 2017 | Pages 353-360
Providing dietary advice to our patients forms the cornerstone of prevention for many dental diseases. However, simply prescribing information is unlikely to bring about long-term behavioural change. This article explores the theory of health behaviour as well as ways in which we can ‘get the message across’.
Oral disorders affect 3.9 billion people worldwide,1 with it being well accepted that the majority of this disease is preventable. Primary prevention (preventing the onset of disease)2 forms the cornerstone of high-quality dentistry and, in primary dental care, there is an excellent opportunity to provide this owing to the generally healthy nature of patients seen. It is acknowledged that these ‘upstream approaches’ are cheaper and more effective compared with situations when disease onset has occurred.3,4
Diet has been closely linked to oral and general health. Within the dental setting, the vast majority of evidence has historically focused on its association with dental caries, although periodontal diseases and oral cancer are also linked to nutritional status.5,6
As well as taking a whole population approach by educating patients prior to the onset of their oral/general health diseases, susceptible patients must be identified early in the onset of their disease and given consistent, evidence-based information in a way in which the chance of initiating behaviour change is maximized.
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