Effect of Oral Health Education Program in Chinese School Children

Objective: To evaluate the effect of oral health education program in primary school children in Beijing, China. Methods: 881 grade one pupils (age 6~7 years) with similar socioeconomic class in four primary schools were randomly divided into two groups. Group 1 (463 pupils) had oral health education lecture once a month within 6 months, which included oral diseases prevention and the Bass method of toothbrushing, and then supervised by their teachers to brush their teeth once a week in the school days. Group 2 (418 pupils) had only oral health education lectures once a month within 6 months, without supervision of toothbrushing at school days. Caries status and dental plaque level (Tureskey modified Quigley-Hein Plaque Index) were examined at baseline, and only Plaque Index was examined 6 months after the program implemented by single-blinded examiner. All the subjects completed a questionnaire at baseline and at evaluation. Results: There were no significant differences of caries level, mean plaque index and the oral health knowledge between the two groups of children at baseline. Mean plaque index in Group 1 was 2.0 at evaluation, which was significantly lower than that in Group 2 (3.5, p<0.01). Conclusion: Oral health education program, without oral health promotion practice, such as supervised toothbrushing, can not improve oral hygiene status of Chinese primary school children.