Author’s response
Thank you to Dr. Casterline for his kind comments about our study of motivational interviewing, or MI. Let me respond to his concern. We used focus groups of local parents to identify a "menu" of possible interventions that were to be discussed in detail with parents of 6- to 18-month-old children. While I agree with him that "always put your 6-year-old or younger child to bed with clean teeth by brushing the child’s teeth yourself at bedtime" is worded so that parental responsibilities are clear, we were working with the parents of very young children. When parents were interested in that menu item, a counselor provided a number of examples of how, when and where a parent could clean baby’s dentition.
As I indicated, we did not focus on cleaning at bedtime, which may be problematic for some families. I want to reassure you that our lay counselors (and therefore the parents in the MI group) understand that children cannot clean their own teeth. The issue Dr. Casterline raises is important—it is all too common that parents give young children toothbrushes.
Philip Weinstein, Ph.D., Professor, Dental Public Health Science Director
Behavioral Dental Research Program, University of Washington, Seattle
