The Crucial Dentist Role Toward Stunting Prevention in Indonesia

Abstract

Introduction: Stunting is considered as one of the main indicators of children’s welfare and socioeconomic
conditions. Stunting in children can cause health and mental development problems also decreased
productivity and intellectual capacity.Stunting growth was found to have a significant correlation with
various dental health problems, such as dental caries.
Aims: This study was done to summarize and describe the dentist crucial role toward stunting prevention
and its control in Indonesia.
Method: This independent literature search was made by the team from different databases which are:
PubMed, NCBI, Hindawi, Oxford Academic, Scopus, PLoS One, ScienceDirect, and ResearchGate with the
keywords: Stunting, Nutrition, Oral Health, Pregnancy, Low Birth Weight, and Early Childhood Caries. The
criteria for data collection including (1) cross-sectional study, an observational study, cohort study, clinical
trials and reviews, (2) in English and Bahasa, (3) from the past 7 years from 2012 to 2019.
Results: Twenty seven studies that related to the keyword were studied.
Conclusion: Stunting in Indonesia has a relationship with the health conditions of the oral cavity in the
mother and child through the influence of the provision of diet and nutrition by the mother which relatable
to education, behavior, and socioeconomic circumstances of the family. Furthermore, dentists have an
important role in reducing stunting in Indonesia