BACKGROUND
Dental caries is the most common multifactorial oral disease that affects 60-90% of the world’s population. It is highly preventable through prevention behaviours aimed at improving oral hygiene, adequate fluoride usage and diet intake. Mobile apps have the potential to support patients with dental caries but, little is known about the availability, target audience, quality and features of these apps.
OBJECTIVE
This review aimed to systematically examine dental caries prevention apps, describe their content, availability, target audience, features and to assess quality.
METHODS
We systematically identified and evaluated apps in a process paralleling a systematic review . This included; 1) search strategy using the search terms of dental caries, early childhood caries, tooth decay, dental caries prevention, early childhood caries prevention, tooth decay prevention, saliva, and fluoride 2) eligibility assessment, using inclusion and exclusion criteria focused on accessibility and dental caries self-management behaviors including oral hygiene, dietary intake and fluoride usage, 3) data extraction, on app characteristics including app store metrics, 4) prevention behaviour factor categorization 5) feature identification and description 6) quality appraisal of all apps using the validated Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) assessment tool 7) data comparison and analysis.
RESULTS
Our search strategy retrieved 562 apps from the Google Play and iTunes store available in Australia. Of those, 40 apps fit our eligibility criteria and 55%(22/40) targeted adults, 93%(37/40) were free to download and 65%(26/ 40) were recently updated. Oral hygiene was the most common dental caries prevention behavior domain addressed in 93% (37/ 40) of the apps, while dietary intake was addressed in 45% (18/40) and fluoride usage in 42% (17/40). Overall 50% (20/40) addressed only one behaviour and 38%(15/40) addressed all three behaviours. The mean MARS score was 2.9 (range 1.8-4.4), with 45% (18/ 40) apps categorized as high quality, with a rating above 3.0 out of 5.0. We identified 21 distinctive features, across all dental caries prevention behaviors; however, the top 5 most common features focused on oral hygiene. The highest-ranking app was the ‘Brush DJ’ app with an overall MARS score of 4.4, had the highest number of features(n=13). We did not find any apps that adequately addressed dental caries prevention behaviors for very young children.
CONCLUSIONS
Apps addressing dental caries prevention behavior commonly focus on oral hygiene and many target young adults, but not many are of high quality. These apps utilized a range of features to support consumer engagement and some of these features may be helpful for specific patient populations. However, it is unclear how effective these apps are in improving dental caries outcomes and further evaluation is required before they are widely recommended.
CLINICALTRIAL
n
Modern antimicrobial therapy in dental caries