Effectiveness of an Oral Health Education Programme for School Children

Objective: The aim of this four-year longitudinal study was to assess the effectiveness of topical fluoride application and a dental health education program designed to improve the oral hygiene, caries prevalence, decrease the plaque accumulation of 6-12 year old school children in Ankara between 2000 and 2003 Methods: Six hundred forty children from six different primary schools in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara were randomly allocated to two test groups (TI, n=240; and TII, n=165) and one control group (C, n=235). TI group children received oral health education and application of a 0.5% fluoride rinse four times a year. TII group children received only oral health education. No oral health education or fluoride application was carried out for the control group. At baseline and each year after the second year for a four-year period, the dfs/DF-S and plaque scores were recorded in all groups. Results: The mean caries increments of test groups and the control groups were as followed: The baseline (year 2000) df-s/DF-S data were 2.90/0.15 for TI, 2.12/0.20 for TII and 2.79/0.16 for C. The 2002 df-s/DF-S scores were 3,47/0,86 (TI), 3,76/0,60 (TII), and 4,73/0,85 (C). The 2003 df-s/DF-S scores were 3,69/1,46 (TI), 3,79/0,80 (TII), and 5,14/1,79 for (C) respectively. A further plaque accumulation assessment was made. No significant differences were found for the baseline scores while the caries occurrence was increased by the age (p<0.05). However, no statistically significant differences were detected between the caries prevalence values of test and control groups. In follow-up examinations, the mean plaque score were significantly different for test and control groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results indicate that it might not be possible to prevent caries in school children by means of the described program but educational programs are effective to decrease plaque index values.