JOURNAL OF UPDATES IN PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY - Volume 2 Issue 2, Volume 2, Issue 2, July-December 2023

Pages: 22-29

Date of Publication: 31-Jan-2023

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A cross-sectional survey of current nutritional counseling practices and attitudes towards dairy among pediatric dentists.

Author: Alexa Martinelli, Michael Milano, Bruce Riggs, Todd Schoenbaum

Category: Pediatric Dentistry

Abstract:

Aims: This study sought to explore current dietary recommendations by pediatric dentists and to examine their attitudes toward sugar-sweetened milk.

Methods: A cross-sectional 13-item survey instrument was developed by an expert team and disseminated to 7,783 emails through Qualtrics from February 2-27, 2023. The question topics included 3 domains: nutritional guidelines, types of foods recommended, and the level of dairy counseling given to parents for their children. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate responses.

Results: Out of 304 responses, 96.3% of pediatric dentists consider flavored milk to be a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB). Nearly 65% of pediatric dentists refer to a USDA-published resource for nutritional recommendations. Only 12% of pediatric dentists routinely offer obesity counseling.

Conclusions: While pediatric dentists continue to provide nutritional counseling at a high capaci ty, they do not have a universal resource on which to base their recommendations. The majority of pediatric dentists also consider flavored milk to be a SSB, despite the current exclusion of flavored milk from SSB classification.

Keywords: Pediatric Dentist, Milk, Nutrients, Flavored milk

DOI: 10.54276/JUPD.2023.2204

DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.54276/JUPD.2023.2204