Early Childhood Caries and Health Professionals' Perception: a Qualitative Research Protocol to Assess Oral Health Stigma

Dental caries is the most common non-communicable disease in childhood. Disease management of caries rests on surgical treatment as well as various preventive strategies such as fluoridation, sealants, personal counselling... With other non-communicable diseases (obesity, overweight…), it has been demonstrated that health professionals' negative perceptions of their patients could affect disease management quality. Concerning dental caries, some data might suggest that discriminating believes and behaviours toward children with dental caries and their families exist in the medical setting. However, oral health related stigma remains an unexplored issue. This study would be the first to our knowledge to specifically address the question of stigmatisation and discrimination of patients with dental caries. The present project is to conduct an exploratory study focusing on perceptions and attitudes of health professionals toward children with early childhood caries and their parents. The questions the study aims to answer are: (i) What are health professionals 'perceptions of children with ECC and their family? And (ii) according to health professionals, do these perceptions influence the quality of their care? We hypothesize that some practitioners have negative opinions on children with ECC and their parents, affecting the quality of their care, especially concerning oral health prevention. Method: Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted among dentists (general or pediatric), general practitioners and paediatricians.