PROTECT Research Study

PROTECT  – Preventing Recurrent Operations Targeting Early Childhood Caries Treatment

Too many young children, particularly those living in poverty, present for dental surgery under anesthesia — an expensive, potentially dangerous, short-term fix that often results in recurring oral health disease and subsequent surgeries. Dr. Helen Lee, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Joanna Buscemi, a clinical health psychologist, recognized that to decrease need for surgeries, caregivers need resources and support to build their skills and knowledge around managing their child’s oral health. After 5 years of relationship-building, publishing preliminary qualitative work, and building a team with the appropriate skills and knowledge, they developed a grant application to develop and test a parenting intervention for caregivers of preschool- aged children presenting for dental surgery.

With support from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the team created the PROTECT intervention with a focus on providing caregivers with parenting and behavioral tools to help improve tooth brushing and lower added sugar intake while simultaneously addressing social determinants of health that make behavior change more difficult. Community health workers will engage with caregivers for 6 months following the child’s surgery to deliver PROTECT and support parents in behavioral change. A surgical event is a unique opportunity to change behaviors in systemically oppressed families that have manifested a need for behavior change. This intervention will meet caregivers needs at a critical time when risk disease recurrence intersects with a desire to change. This work has the potential to not only improve oral health of entire households but may also have a concomitant effect on parallel diseases, such as pediatric obesity.

Learn More $3.9 Million NIH Grant to PROTECT Children’s Teeth

Who qualifies for this study? Heading link

Mother and young daughter hugging and smiling
  • English or Spanish-speaking parents or caregivers
  • Those who plan to continue their child’s dental care at UIC
  • Those over 18 years old
  • Those who have a child less than 72 months of age (under 6 years old) undergoing dental surgery

What is the process of being a part of this study? Heading link

Child smiling and with an apple

There are two main parts to this study:

  1. Meeting with a community health worker (CHW) for 11 sessions over 6 months following dental surgery. The CHW will support parents in changing behaviors and improving their child’s tooth health. Caregivers will learn about tooth health/tooth brushing, healthy eating, parenting, managing stress, and more. The first session will be 60 minutes and take place in-person during the child’s dental surgery. The following 10 sessions will be about 30 minutes each and over the phone or zoom.
  2.  Meeting with a research assistant 3 times over 8-12 months to answer questionnaires. The research assistant ask questions over the phone or zoom to will collect information from caregivers about their tooth brushing, healthy eating, and parenting habits. Each session will take about 90 minutes. Participants will receive gift cards following each of these data collection sessions to thank them for their time (total of $145).

The PROTECT team encompasses professionals across multiple disciplines and expertise.

Helen Lee, MD, MPH – Pediatric Anesthesiologist
Relevant expertise: Pediatric anesthesiology. Factors that influence utilization and
outcomes in the pediatric dental surgical population. Social determinants of oral health that contribute to pediatric oral health inequities at the intersection of medicine and dentistry.

Joanna Buscemi, PhD – Clinical Psychologist
Relevant expertise: Developing and testing behavioral interventions to change health
outcomes in early childhood. Implementing behavioral parenting interventions to improve health outcomes. Behavioral change. Childhood obesity.

Molly Martin, MD, MAPP – Pediatrician
Relevant expertise: Developing and implementing health promotion interventions using CHWs to address problems in minoritized families. Developing oral health curriculum for CHWs. Community-based research. Behavioral change.

Marc Atkins, PhD – Psychologist
Relevant expertise: Implementing behavioral parenting interventions to improve health outcomes. Community-based research.

David Avenetti, DDS, MSD, MPH – Pediatric Dentist
Relevant expertise: Pediatric dentistry.

Teresa Marshall, PhD – Nutrition Expert
Relevant expertise: Nutrition and childhood cavities. Role of dietary intake, specifically
sugar sweetened beverages, in childhood caries. Measurement and analysis of dietary intake

Lisa Tussing-Humphreys, PhD, MS, RDN
Relevant expertise: Role of diet in childhood caries. Measurement and analysis of
dietary intake. Nutrition data analysis.

Michael Berbaum, PhD – Statistician
Relevant expertise: Managing and analyzing longitudinal behavioral, psychosocial, and
clinical outcomes (clinical, psychosocial variables) within a clinical trial.

Teresa Borowski, PhD – Community Psychologist
Relevant expertise: Program implementation and evaluation. Social-emotional
competence development. Community-based research.

Part of this research will take place at UIC’s College of Dentistry located at 801 S Paulina St, Chicago, IL 60612. The rest of the study will happen over the phone or on Zoom video call.

Read more about what research is and your rights, role and importance in research.

Visit the Center for Clinical and Translational Science website for more information on research rules and participant rights.

To take part in this research study or for more information, email one of our researchers.  You can reach Dr. Helen Lee at leehelen@uic.edu and Dr. Joanna Buscemi at jbuscem2@depaul.edu.

Caregiver, community health worker, and dentist feedback on a behavioral intervention for caregivers of children with severe early childhood caries , Frontiers Journal October 2024

UIC, DePaul get to the root of severe tooth decay in kids, Crain’s Chicago Business, October 2024

UIC, DePaul get to the root of severe tooth decay in kids, News Release, September 2024

Melanie Izquierdo, UIC Medical Student, Society for Pediatric Anesthesia, Anaheim, April 2024

Paige Patano, DePaul University Master’s candidate, Society for Behavioral Medicine, Philadelphia, March 2024

Teresa Borowski, Project Manager, International Association for Dental Research, New Orleans, March 2024