Evaluation of Oral Hygiene-Related Mobile Apps for Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

In sub-Saharan Africa, oral health is a real epidemiological challenge. Mobile applications represent a hope for the learning of oral hygiene in children and the fight against oral diseases. This study overviews and assesses the quality of mobile applications linked to oral hygiene for children currently featured on the iOS and Android stores in sub-Saharan Africa. Ten oral health professionals (OHP) used the French Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS-F) to rate 15 selected applications. The highest MARS-F scores for overall quality were reported for Bonne nuit Caillou (3.89 ± 0.74), Mon Raccoon (3.63 ± 0.95), and Chomper Chums (3.54 ± 0.54) while the lowest MARS-F scores for overall quality were achieved by Brushing time (2.31 ± 0.61), De belles dents (2.55 ± 0.55) and Brushing Hero (2.77 ± 0.53). The subjective quality scores ranged from 1.50 ± 0.68 for Brushing time to 3.25 ± 0.97 for Bonne nuit Caillou. Specificity scores ranged from 1.95 ± 0.88 (Brushing time) to 3.75 ± 0.84 (Bonne nuit Caillou). Thus, OHP rated positively the quality of the majority of mobile applications linked to oral hygiene for children, their effect on users’ knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to change, and the probability of effective oral hygiene behavior modification. They stated that they would recommend their use to their patients who need them. However, studies analyzing the change in oral hygiene behavior of children using these apps need to be conducted.

App-based oral health promotion interventions on modifiable risk factors associated with early childhood caries: A systematic review

“…Mobile apps within the context of mHealth interventions are also a potential tool for educating parents about their children's oral health, as supported by several randomised control trials (15)(16)(17). Majority of the dental caries prevention apps focus on providing oral hygiene education and information for different age groups including children or adults (18)(19)(20). However, a recent review (18) identified a significant gap in the availability of apps that are specifically designed to support parents of young children in preventing dental caries.…”

Smartphone Applications in Dentistry: A Scoping Review

“…The studies belonged to four categories: randomized controlled clinical trials [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51], cross-sectional studies [52], before-after (pre-post) studies with no control group [53], and observational studies [54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. Table S3 (Supplementary Materials) shows the studies excluded from this review and the reasons for exclusion [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

Fluorescence-based Evaluation of the Efficacy of Augmented Reality-assisted Toothbrush on Oral Hygiene Practices Among 6–8 Years Old Children

“…24 In another survey, Kanoute et al assessed the quality of different mobile game applications currently available that are linked to oral hygiene measures for children through a survey among oral health professionals who recommended their use and rated them positively. 25 A recent study investigated the usage of a smartphone app for improving manual toothbrushing via a gravitation sensor by measuring the plaque and gingival indices through a randomized controlled trial, showing promising results. 26 Similarly, comparison of A-R-assisted toothbrushing via a mobile app with manual brushing was done among 247 children by assessing plaque scores and Visual biofilm index by Desai et al 27 and measuring toothbrushing duration and distribution by Jacobson et al 28 However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the recent studies have evaluated microbiological evidence of bacterial load reduction via A-R-assisted toothbrushing with a supporting fluorescence data added as a measurable outcome.…”