PREreview of Grado de avance en Metas Sanitarias de salud bucal infantil en la Región del Maule

The article addresses an important issue because it considers verifying the implementation of necessary programs in the region on oral health issues in children. In addition, the progress and fulfillment of the goals proposed by the Chilean government to improve the prevalence of one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide are studied.

I congratulate the authors on this important initiative and wish them success.

Abstract

·                     The writing of the abstract could be more empathetic. The abstract is the face of an article and requires that it impact the reader with a preamble that attracts the reading of the research.

·                     In this same section, the use of acronyms, acronyms or abbreviations that can later be clarified in the text of the manuscript should be avoided.

·                     The objective is ambiguous since it comprises two verbs: "to compare" and "to know". The latter should not be used for these purposes.

·                     At the end of the summary, allegations are made that do not contrast with the objective of the research and that may be part of a discussion and not of the summary, as in the case of the possible causes of the results in 2017 and 2020.

Introduction

·                     The objective set out in the introduction does not coincide with that of the abstract.

·                     This same objective is extensive. It is suggested that the authors rewrite it in such a way that it concretely expresses the course of the research.

Methodology

·                     The writing of any scientific article must be done in an impersonal time. For this reason, it is suggested that authors review the wording of the article and adjust it to this rule, which is important even if they intend to translate the manuscript for publication.

·                     It would be useful for readers to provide the URLs of the sites from which they extracted the information for the study if they are in open access. Above all, because the Chilean government advocates this modality of sharing relevant information for investigations of this type.

·                     In the selection criteria, reference is made to elements that do not agree with this section of the manuscript, although what is described is relevant in the research.

·                     The same is true for exclusion criteria. All this information should have been included in the previous subsection in which the sites and series from which the data were extracted were described.

·                     If the goals and resolutions are published, it is suggested that they do not describe in detail all the content of the goals and resolutions and make a brief description of them with the pertinent annotations. This would help them not to make the manuscript so long that it would affect its possible publication by number of pages or words.

·                     It's the same with related programs as it is with goals and resolutions. If they are published, it is not necessary to describe them in full.

·                     The COED and COP indices are international indices that have been widely described in the dental literature and it is suggested that the authors do not detail them in the manuscript.

Results

·                     For Figures 4 and 5, the authors are suggested to improve their resolution and display.

Discussion

·                     In this section, authors are suggested to contrast their results with other similar research in which they can discuss their findings without repeating numerical data referred to in the results section.

Competing interests

The author declares that they have no competing interests.