Understanding the Prevalence of Dental Caries Among Pakistani Children Case Study

Factors Impacting Dental Caries Prevalence and Oral Health in Pakistan

Introduction

Tooth decay or dental caries mainly occurs due to loss of tooth el which is observed mainly in human chronic disease. This happens primarily in children due to poor behaviour related to oral health among school-aged children. In consideration of development of public health, implementation of an oral care strategy is necessary for existing and undeveloped processes. According to Van Chuyen et al. (2021), 60 to 90% of children had suffered due to dental caries. In case of developing countries, this needs to be well-controlled and developed by middle- and low-income countries. Dental caries leads to pain among children, which develop difficulties in communication, sleeping and eating. As referred to by Kazeminia et al. (2020), ECC or “early childhood caries,” involves dental caries that have been found among children and infants which need to be regulated by applying appropriate strategies. Prevalence of dental problem leads to interference, infection, and pain which develop risk in permanent and primary teeth. As opined by Batool et al. (2021), oral disease creates a defect in quality of life which generates health issue and develops chronic diseases. High frequency of dental caries has a negative impact on children’s quality of life. Tooth decay involves with destruction of teeth and localized dissolution which damages root surface and tooth crown.

Figure 1: Revenue in the Oral Care segment

Due to a lack of knowledge, practices and attitudes about dental caries of parents and children , this have been influenced. Prevention rate of dental caries is observed among the 11 to 12 years age group in both girls and boys (Kazeminia et al., 2020). As per above image, it is observed that US$0.45bn amount has been observed which is increased by 3.48% in 2023 (Statista, 2023). In developing countries, with poor economic conditions, children are not getting proper guidance to care for their teaching and oral health (Van Chuyen et al., 2021). It is the school’s responsibility to implement “Oral Health Promotion Program” to improve their student’s oral health-related behaviour and knowledge. Moreover, it is also observed that rate of water fluoridation also responsible for dental caries which needs to measure and minimized for community and child’s health.

Figure 2: Prevalence estimate of dental caries in provinces and cities of Pakistan

Dental caries needs to manage to develop optimisation of oral health which need to focus on per national level. As referred to by Siddiqui et al. (2021), in more than 60% of Pakistani population, dental caries have been observed which occurs at high risk of well-being and health. The issues are irregular brushing, eating before brushing, thumb sucking, staining of teeth, oral hygiene, deposition of calcium, and gum condition which leads to dental caries among children in Pakistan (Batool et al. 2021). These issues occurred due to infection in teeth, lack of fluoride and a number of rotten teeth is higher and these are uncontrolled and unable to prevent (Wang et al. 2019). Present issue is a rate of prevalence has become higher in case of dental caries in Pakistani children which negatively drives poor oral health. This research will shed light on factors for prevalence rate among Pakistani children.

Aims and Objectives

Primary aim of this research will find out factors that are responsible to increase prevalence of dental caries among Pakistani children.

Identified objectives are

• To find out factors that occurs due to high rate of dental caries among children.
• To identified issues that children face due to dental caries in Pakistani environment.
• To evaluate policy and procedure for implementing a strategy to control dental caries.
• To recommend strategies to improve oral health among Pakistani children.

Justification

Oral health concern is required among children in age group 5 to 15 years mainly in developing countries. As referred to by Kale et al. (2020), this has been recognized due to gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, which are mainly dependent due to risk assessment. This constitution mainly occurs due to the development of fermentable carbohydrates, multiple host factors and acidogenic bacteria which are developed in consideration of comprising saliva.

Research Approach

Interpretivism research philosophy will be selected to conduct this research to develop research goals. This type of research philosophy depends on an assumption of social aspects. In relation to subjective, multiple and reality, this is influencing understanding of reality which is beneficial to create research shape. According to Alharahsheh and Pius (2020), this depends on observation and performance which allow for development in respect of creative aspects. It delivers support to gain depth knowledge in consideration of social context which is concerned with physical phenomena. This is a concern about depth variables which is related to physical phenomena as per assumption of real aspects (Nickerson, 2022). It focuses on differences including circumstance and culture which leads social developments. In this research, positivism philosophy has been avoided instead of interpretivism. Positivism is opposite way of interpretivism as it does not focus on circumstances and situations (Park et al. 2020). In relation to an objective phenomenon, it is important to identify a problem and solve it which supports managing scientific knowledge. As referred to by Junjie and Yingxin (2022), this develops an alternative model as per reality instead of dealing with numeric data. This philosophy will be helpful to identify factors that are related to dental caries in consideration of their present situation.

Figure 3: Methodology

Descriptive design will be selected to measure present population of dental caries in Pakistan. Primary aim of descriptive design is to organize data in a systematic way in consideration of situation, phenomena and population. This generally focuses on research problems for obtaining data. As referred to by Sileyew (2019), this supports researcher to develop authentic research sources that is effective to collect generalised design. This study depends on research distribution depending on their variables regarding hypothesis and casualty. As opined by Hunter et al. (2019), with help of this research, individuals focus on an in-depth analysis in consideration of subject and topic. In case of obtaining phenomena, data are interpreted and represented in response of data accuracy. Exploratory research design will be avoided as it only focuses on research’s problem however descriptive concern about characteristics and functions. As stated by Carter et al. (2021), this type of research design focuses on formulating a problem and supports for clear investigation. However, on other hand, descriptive research supports explaining and exploring present situation. In a similar way, as mentioned by Ikram and Kenayathulla (2022), this method focused on research objectives which is crucial for analysis research. This is a comparative designing method which depends on availability of resources.

An inductive approach will be chosen to drive qualitative and secondary research. This approach has been used to draw a respective outcome depending on observation and explanation. Moreover, this determines qualitative research which provides guidance about objective evaluation. As stated by Woiceshyn and Daellenbach (2018), this is necessary for developing advanced knowledge and providing support to develop innovative theories. This involves multiple steps such as data analysis, data collection and data interpretation. This depends on “doxology” and “epistemology” to drive research success. Finding data in consideration of ideas and observation, which assist to conduct research progress. This supports to development of research in a generalised way depending on a specific observation (Sileyew, 2019). Importance of inductive approach allows for generating new theory as per flexibility. Inductive approach will be selected instead of deductive approach which provides support to analysis hypothesis. It influences a complete understanding that is employed to involve with theory and support to meet research objectives. As referred to by Walter and Ophir (2018), this influences for empirical finding which draw and measured minimal bias. Deductive approach mainly depends on statistical information and chances of certain mistakes are higher (Csikar et al. 2019). Instead of this, inductive approach is beneficial to evaluate strategies which support to re-build theories. In this research, an inductive approach will be followed to evaluate policy and procedure as per overcoming dental caries.

Secondary data collection will be applied whole collection of data about Pakistan children who suffer from dental caries. Database selection is an major step for selection of secondary articles from sources. According to Ruggiano and Perry (2019), secondary qualitative method to maintain data authenticity and encourage to collects data unbiased. Different data base such as Google scholar, CINHAL, ProQuest, and PubMed will be used to gather information on social and oral science.

Table 1: Database service and the keywords from Boolean operator

Data selection criteria

• Articles should be within 5 years
• Articles must be peer-reviewed
• Articles that focused solely on the research objective
• Articles that will identified need to contain effective structure
• Articles needs to be unbiased
• Availability of full-text is mandatory
• Maintain English language is important
• Sources will have liability

Venn diagram

Figure 4: Venn diagram

(Source: Self-developed)

As per above image, it is observed that prevalence of dental caries has been higher among Pakistani children. It is developed due to poor oral health and lack of proper knowledge of parents and students. This is useful to establish relation among variables as circles are overlap with each other.

Data will be handled with an application of proper tools to avoid plagiarism. Turnitin is an effective tool to calculate and measured rate of plagiarism that is effective to avoid research error. As stated by Roh et al. (2019), data integration in primary way supports to maintain data acquisition as per secondary practice. In addition, data will be stored in a computer that needs to store with a strong password. Moreover, while data collection, it will require to screen data in an authentic way by using Boolean method.

Data analysis

Collected data will be secondary based and will follow thematic analysis where themes will be developed based on identified objectives. A qualitative research article will be selected in consideration of prevalence of dental caries. According to Bastani et al. (2021), thematic analysis support understanding pattern of data which helps to address research topic. Moreover, this generates interesting things that play a crucial role in data summarization. This process has been involved to develop research findings which are relatively subject to making sense of data (Braun and Clarke, 2019). This is beneficial for to categorized themes and is helpful to understand aspects of phenomenon of a topic. This is helpful for understanding depth and frequency in aspects of research objectives. Developing themes is crucial to understand the research purpose which represents data which are interlinked. As referred to by Dixon et al. (2020), this process has been demonstrated to manage a patient’s life and support to delivery proper treatment. This is effective to understand different sides of a research topic and analysing it with applying of theories. In relation to primary studies, data can be synthesized in a transparent way which is facilitating a particular hypothesis. This process provides flexibility in case of identification of themes and subthemes (Paisi et al., 2019). Using of this analysis, secondary data sets have been identified from different sources which influence to answer identified research question.

Justification

Unlike qualitative research, secondary articles related to prevalence of dental caries in Pakistan will be identified and selected to learn about tooth decay and how to mitigate this problem. It helps to understand the pattern of data to address the research question (Sundler et al. 2019). Statistical analysis will be avoided as data cannot be compared in a uniform way. It has also limitations in evaluating values in relation to qualitative aspects (Rubin and Little, 2019). Themes are developed at per semantic level and support to description and analysis of data in consideration of underlying assumptions and ideas. In context of qualitative psychology, this is a powerful method which conducts a reflexive approach (Braun and Clarke, 2019). In case of this research, while searching for themes, this is significant for identifying preliminary themes by using codes. In consideration of research objectives, codes will be sued as “oral health”, “tooth decay”, “dental caries”, poor behaviour, and poor eating habits. Familiarization, theme generation, coding, naming themes and reporting are effective steps of thematic analysis.

Ethical considerations

Set of principles of a research is considered as ethical consideration that provides guidance about research practices and themes. Principles which are involved with consent, participation, potential confidentiality, and anonymity. As referred to by Pietilä et al. (2020), maintaining ethical aspects of research emphasizes on specific 4 principles, such as justice, non-maleficence, autonomy and beneficence. The goal of research is to develop knowledge as per real-life phenomena and influence future research. In case of data collection in secondary sources, data need to be de-identified. In case of sensitive information that is collected from public domain it is crucial for maintaining data provenance (Pietilä et al. 2020). Selection of authentic sources is crucial in case of data collection, data designing, data disposal and data storage. In case of using authentic and sensitive data, it is individual’s responsibility to use these data in a transparent and lawful way (data protection act, 2018). While data collection from different data bases, duplicate and unauthentic sources will be avoided in case of prevalence in dental caries. Moreover, plagiarism and copy-paste-related actions needs to be avoided as these are considered as a higher offense. `This research will be driving unbiased and access information only from authentic resources.

Resources and facilities

Table 2: Project Plan

Based on above table, data will be collected and analysis by following data identification, data restoring along with resources selection. Different data based will be overviewed to maintain authenticity as data will be collected from the previously published article. In addition, the article should be with 5 years of research which help will to understand current situation. Different online resources will be collected which may contain dental caries and oral cavity among children. Moreover, Pakistani research will be gaining higher priority as this research mainly depends on Pakistani children’s oral health conditions. Data authentication will be checked by the respective supervisor and plagiarism will be checked in Turnitin. It will helpful to avoid plagiarism and copy paste related offense. Data collection will take 14 days as it will support to meet research objectives. Thematic analysis will be developed from collected data which will depends on codes. Variables will be depending on themes and objectives that drive research success. A discussion from selected articles will be demonstrating that support to find out information about prevalence of dental caries among Pakistani children.

Reference

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