[Early childhood oral health: Strategy with educators and parents or guardiansSaúde bucal na primeira infancia: estratégia com agentes educativos e cuidadores].

Abstract

Introduction: Primary dentition is essential for nutrition, speech, and self-esteem. Children under the age of 5 do not have the motor skills to perform oral hygiene on their own.

Objective: To design and implement an educational strategy to promote oral health in early childhood with educators and parents/guardians of children attending the community homes of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute in Santa Rosa de Cabal (Colombia) in 2019.

Materials and methods: Qualitative, action research design. Non-probability convenience sampling was used. Twenty-five educators and 55 parents/guardians participated. Focus groups and pedagogical workshops were the research techniques used. Thematic analysis was performed for data analysis.

Results: It was conducted in three phases: 1) Participants expressed that oral health is about proper hygiene. Although all were aware of caries, the caregivers did not understand it as a pathology. The educators perceived that they had high self-efficacy to contribute to children's oral health; 2) in the pedagogical workshops, concerns were resolved on topics such as growth and development of the stomatognathic system, oral diseases, among others, and 3) the educators learned about the relationship between oral health and breastfeeding, as well as the causes and consequences of oral pathologies, and reproduced what they learned.

Conclusions: The development of educational strategies based on theoretical models and participatory methods adapted to the needs and contexts of the communities is recommended since it is necessary to produce situated knowledge with cultural acceptance.